Keeper of the Lost Cities: Neverseen
by Xylia Neo
Summary: {COMPLETED} Sophie and her friends are settling in a new life at the Black Swan—but things get far worse when true identities are revealed, tales of the past uncovered, enemies she thought were friends unmasked—and schemes of both organizations discovered. When a spy leads them to join a revolution—they fight with everything—but soon learn that trust is deadly in this world.
1. Chapter 1

The dreams haunted Sophie. Her vision was blurry as she thrashed around, feeling bonds cuffed tightly around her wrists and ankles.

Blurs of dark cloaks swirled around her, and the sign of the Neverseen was bore on the figure's sleeve.

Brant.

His hot hands grabbed her wrists, and a searing throb of pain and a smell of burning flesh – Sophie's flesh – made Sophie's chest heave and her eyes water.

Her eyesight finally focused after what seemed like an eternity, and when she directed her brown eyes to the back of Brant, smoke was billowing and flickers of flames were burning everything she could see and everything she loved.

_Everblaze._

The neon yellow flames was ready to devour her fully as Brant pulled her closer to the waiting Everblaze, his wicked laughs fading after another. Her eyes widened with fear as the wildfire illuminated her face and revealing how scared she really was.

The flames were hungry for her, for _anything._

She tried to squirm away and escape, but the bonds held her back, cutting into her skin, making her cry out and wince in pain. Blood started to trickle from her new wounds as she bit her lip.

"So this is the end to you, Sophie Foster," the raspy voice cackled. "The Black Swan was foolish. Nobody would _ever_ miss you. Unless you surrender to the Neverseen, you will die."

He threw her into the flames and a piercing scream escaped from Sophie's lips as her body flew towards the flaring heat.

"No!"

Sophie woke up with a start on her canopy bed, sweaty and gasping for breath. Memories flooded back instantly as she sat up on her blanket. Where were her friends? Weren't they joining the Black Swan? The night was pitch- black.

She looked around frantically, but there was no sign of Everblaze or Brant. Moving her arms and legs one by one, she was glad to feel them free of restrains.

_It had been a dream._

Sophie sighed in relief, then paused. Wait. Did she scream?

Heavy footsteps pounded on the outside of her bedroom door. "Sophie!" said a worried Edaline. "You must've fallen asleep for a few minutes. I heard you scream. What is it?"

She couldn't tell Edaline about Brant.

He was the only person other than Grady and Edaline that really cared about Jolie. Well, before he turned evil, of course.

She would be too shocked, angry and upset.

Betrayed.

"Nothing," said Sophie innocently, waving the question away. "Just a bad nightmare."

"The kidnappers?" asked Edaline.

"Mum... I don't really want to talk about it. Where are my friends? I thought...we...the Black Swan..."

Sophie had finally started to call Grady and Edaline Mum and Dad.

Edaline swept a strand of Sophie's hair over her forehead. Her fingers lingered on the spot where the ability restrictor had been. "You dozed off downstairs, so we decided to give you all a short break before going to the Black Swan."

Her voice hitched on the last sentence.

Sophie could tell that Edaline didn't want Sophie to go. Not really. But she'd knew it was for her own good, and anyway, once the Council knew that Sophie's circlet was removed by Dex and thrown into the Everblaze, they would be after her and Dex in an instant.

"I want to go now," she said quietly. She embraced Edaline tightly, took her hand, and went down the stairs to the first floor of Havenfield.


	2. Chapter 2

Fitz, Keefe, Dex and Biana were all waiting for Sophie. Elwin was there, checking their bodies and making sure that they were all alright.

"Hmmm . . . You three have quite traumatized little cells," said Elwin, his dark glasses flashing with different coloured lights as he pointed at Fitz, Keefe, and Biana.

Keefe flashed his trademark smirk at him. "Yeah! We went onto another Foster-Keefe adventure on Mount E-"

Biana clapped a hand onto his mouth. Keefe struggled until she released him. He gasped for breath.

Both of their faces were flushed red.

Sophie knew that the reason for Keefe's red face was because he had been lacking of air, but Biana . . . maybe because of a deeper reason.

Sophie grinned impishly as she thought of the possibilities.

"What's so hilarious that your emotions turned giddy, huh, Foster?" teased Keefe.

Sophie ignored him, walking into the room and plopping down on a cushioned chair. Then she immediately stood up. "Can we go, like, now?"

Elwin nodded. "I'd already checked you that day."

"Don't tell anyone."

He nodded again, his face grave as he rested his weary back on a couch.

Alden, Della, Grady, Edaline, Kesler and Juline came in, their expressions grim and worried. They looked as stressed as Sophie was feeling right now.

Sophie frowned. "Where's...Lord Cassius?" she asked cautiously, afraid of Keefe's reaction to the name. She dared not say Lady Gisela's name.

Keefe's mother was part of the Neverseen, and had even obliged to attack Keefe, Sophie and Biana before. Sophie knew Keefe was deeply hurt.

Keefe's joking smirk turned into a sad smile, tinged with anger and hurt. "I don't care about him, Sophie."

It was one of those rare times that he used her first name.

Sophie dropped it and embraced Grady and Edaline in a tight hug. "I'll miss you," she croaked, careful to not let tears streak down her cheeks. Grady tightened his hold around Sophie and Edaline.

"We'll miss you too."

Then Edaline did something that Sophie never expected - and kissed her softly on the cheek.

Trails of warm heat travelled on Sophie's skin, but it wasn't the kind of heat that a Pyrokinetic would give off. Sophie liked it.

_SNARLLLLLL! _The verminion outside Havenfield scared Sophie. Why was it still awake at night? Grady, followed by Edaline, raced out of the doors to the pastures. Sophie walked back slowly and saw that her friends were also saying their sappy goodbyes to their parents.

Except Keefe. He was standing there, an unreadable look on his face.

Sophie wished she could just reach in and read his mind. She felt pitied, and her sympathy went out for him.

Keefe's head snapped up. "What was that, Foster?"

Empaths were _so_ annoying. Especially those who could sense emotions without contact.

"Nothing, really." Sophie lied, but she knew it was no use.

Keefe scoffed. "Clearly you don't know how to lie to an Empath. I said something like that, like, a thousand times."

"It was actually only two times"—Keefe grumbled something about photographic memories—"you too have a photographic memory, did you forget that?" pointed out Sophie.

He snorted. "Always the wise old owl, aren't you?"

Sophie smiled despite herself. "I'm obviously not an owl." At least she managed to get out a real Keefe smile from him.

Dex was first to escape from his dad and mum, his eyes a little red and puffy—he'd clearly been crying, and Sophie couldn't really blame him. This was probably the last time he was going to see his parents until goodness knew when. She blinked back her tears before she could think of Grady and Edaline herself.

"Hey, what were you guys talking about?" he asked, twisting his Disneyland watch that Sophie had given to him during the midterms last year. Back then, it was still the good old days—time passed too quickly for her liking.

Keefe interrupted her before she could say anything. "We were talking about my awesomeness," he answered for her, running a hand across his disheveled hair with a touch of drama.

Dex rolled his eyes at his action, and turned to Sophie. The atmosphere suddenly turned tense, and he looked away, probably feeling slightly humiliated and guilty.

When Sophie had been visiting Kenric's funeral at the Wanderling Woods, the king of the ogres, King Dimitar, had appeared unexpectedly. It turned out that the ogres had been somehow associated with the Neverseen, and they could even have been allies, working together for an effort to steal Silveny and Greyfell, the alicorns resting in the Sanctuary. However, when the Council didn't even question King Dimitar about that matter, or even try to, at least, Sophie had been furious and disbelieving, and, being the reckless and unthinking girl she was, she decided to take matters into her own hands—and read the ogre king's mind. Or, try to, at least.

King Dimitar had caught her the second she entered his mind, and after Sophie had fortunately escaped his ideals of dragging her back to Ravagog to serve a life sentence, the Council vowed to pose a suitable punishment for her.

But Sophie had never expected them to ask Dex—who was a Technopath—to create an ability-binding circlet to restrict her talents. The thing was, Dex was innocent. But Sophie still felt a little angry whenever she thought of the traumatizing incident.

Sophie hesitated, then sighed and forced her best friend to look at her in the eye. "Look, Dex, I forgave you already. We're still best friends, okay?"

Dex smiled uncertainly, showing his dimples, but not as much as Sophie would've liked him to. "Okay."

After a while, Fitz and Biana joined in.

"Can you show me that mental image of the Black Swan base in Florence—or Firenze, Fitz? I need to teleport you all there."

"And you too," reminded Biana.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," said a distracted Sophie. "That was what I meant in the first place. So, the photo...?"

Fitz handed her his teal memory log. Sophie shook her head.

_Transmit it to me, _she transmitted.

Fitz frowned. _Why? It will be clearer if you transmit. But I don't have a photographic memory...oh. I get it. Implanting. _

Sophie had recently discovered that as an added bonus to her already super-strong Telepathy ability, she also had the ability to implant memories into someone's brain. And the memory would be forever intact, even if one didn't have a super memory like her.

_Okay, here it comes,_ Fitz transmitted to Sophie, jerking her out of her thoughts.

A vivid and clear picture appeared in her mind. She could still see the perfect sign of the swan indented on one of the yellow stones surrounding the round window, and the red sign that read 'except authorized' in Italian.

The Black Swan was pretty darn smart—Sophie had to give them that.

Racing to the Cliffside gates, she hurriedly pressed her thumb against the lock. It clicked open and they raced to the edge of the cliff, the wind howling and the waves crashing below.

The wind whipped her blonde hair around her face, obscuring her vision. Sophie hastily put her hair behind her ears. "Am I ready?" she asked herself, her hands shaking as she stared at them, making up her mind suddenly.

She was.

"You are," confirmed Keefe, grabbing her shoulders. "C'mon, you've got this, Foster. Don't worry about it, okay?"

The sun was starting to rise, and the first rays of sunlight were peeking in.

Any second later and the Council would realise her ability restrictor was gone.

She fumbled around for her registry pendant, and ripped it off. Which was hard, considering that the chain was reinforced by beads.

The others took them off more easily, as theirs hadn't been reinforced. The five of them threw their pendants into the sea, watching silently as the white foam and ocean blue waves washed them away into the unknown.

Sophie couldn't help but feel like their pendants right now. They were about to join the Black Swan, delving into something totally new and foreign to all of them.

Biana gasped in fear and excitement. "I can't believe we're actually doing this." She rubbed her hands giddily.

"You sure you can teleport five people including you?" asked Fitz.

Sophie nodded. "I teleported four—including me—before without a problem, so I'll just have to concentrate harder. But hold on tight. "

They intertwined their hands together. Dex seemed uneasy holding hands with Fitz, but he shook it off.

"Let's go," Sophie whispered, and they jumped, plummeting down from the cliff.

They were _finally _going to join the Black Swan.


	3. Chapter 3

Thunder rumbled loudly as the force of the void nearly blew Sophie apart. A crack formed in the air beneath them, and they dropped straight into it. Sophie focused on the picture of the round window, every big and little detail of it. She shut her eyes, willing the exit from the void to appear.

When no such thing happened, she ripped her eyes open, panicked. A hint of a migraine was seeping into her head. Were they trapped in the void again? Then the migraine became so, so painful that Sophie squeezed her eyes and clutched her head, purple and yellow dots swirling in the darkness of her vision.

Sure, they were trapped. Her friends were looking confused. Except Keefe, as he knew what had happened too.

"Sophie, what's going on?" asked Fitz, Biana and Dex in unison. Then Dex gruffly turned away, muttering something about being soft to Vackers.

Everybody ignored him.

"She's trapped in the void again," explained Keefe, slinging her limp arm around his shoulders to support her. "But there's no teleporting through solid objects this time, is there?"

Sophie tried her best to nod her agonized head.

"Then we have no choice but to improvise," muttered Biana. "Sophie, do you know any places in Florence?"

Sophie thought for a moment - and said, "The Piazza della Signoria."

"My mum?" asked Fitz in confusion.

She probed her mind for a picture of the brownish-yellow old building. It looked like a castle with a clocktower behind it.

They slipped into the crack and Sophie's migraine instantly vanished. She sighed, her head clear, and closed her eyes. Rainbow swirls swam around her eyesight.

A warm breeze that calmed her spirits down told her they had arrived at the destination. She could hear people chattering, but Sophie was too tired. She didn't open her eyes. She could hear her friends crying for her to wake up, but she ignored them. She refused to wake up. Sophie wanted a good rest.

She didn't even sleep after the events at Everest, then she had another migraine, and it was just...

_Too much_.

For Sophie, at least.

_Even Project Moonlark has its limits._

Sophie thought she smiled.

Darkness conquered and Sophie floated off from reality and the world. She was peaceful and contented.


	4. Chapter 4

"Sophie, _wake up!"_ said Biana in exasperation, shaking Sophie gently, afraid to make a vigorous move on her in case something went wrong.

They'd been trying to wake Sophie for a few hours already. Biana was scared that Sophie wouldn't open her eyes. And then, another tree in the Wanderling Woods. A real one this time.

People had been staring at them, because of their capes and fancy clothing. Hadn't humans heard of _dressing up fancy?_

Of course they didn't. Then Biana and Keefe had turned to Fitz - and Dex - for help.

"Hey, Fitz, hadn't you went to the Forbidden Cities to search for Foster?" probed Keefe. "And I thought you've been chasing girls then. And it was true."

"No, you thought that I had a farting disease," muttered Fitz.

Dex was unsurprisingly much more helpful. "And there's this ATM that can produce money. I could. As much as I want to. I'm a Technopath."

He stuck out his tongue at Fitz and Biana. Biana rolled her eyes. She was sure that Dex didn't show off his Technopathy skills in front of Sophie. He thought that it wasn't good enough. Dex just wanted to be rude to the Vackers.

As usual, everyone ignored him. Dex did something really bad to Sophie - he created the ability restrictor that made Sophie go berserk and drink slumberberry tea for three days - something Sophie would've never done under normal circumstances.

"So," said Keefe. "Dex, you go and collect . . . err . . . lusters?"

"Dollars," corrected Biana, wrinkling her nose. She still remembered when she'd asked Sophie about dollars.

"Okay, _dollars,"_ continued Keefe, a little annoyed. "Biana, you go with Dex, and then you two find . . . I don't know, just . . . a place to stay. Take Sophie along. Argh, this Forbidden Cities stuff is so hard to do without Foster here to guide us through. But we'll have to make do, won't we? Fitz and I will find new clothes to wear."

Biana looked down at her clothes. There wasn't even a speck of dust on them. Then she looked at the others, and let out a defeated sigh. "Like you two can find clothes for me and Sophie. Clueless and I quote, about fashion. Especially girl clothes."

"Ewe, girly clothes," Fitz and Keefe simpered.

"Yeah! And can I go with Keefe?" Dex mumbled.

Keefe shrugged. "Sure, whatever, just fine. Fitz and Biana, time for your sibling reunion. Channel your inner fashion sense, you two."

Biana tossed her long brown hair over her shoulders. "Please. Who are you talking to? I already have _outer_ fashion sense without channeling inner fashion sense. And you can't channel fashion sense. Everybody knows that. Let's go, Fitz."

"I get bossed around every time." grumbled Fitz as she pulled him away.

Biana turned her head casually as she saw Keefe and Dex hauling Sophie away. A tinge of sadness and worry leaked into her heart.

She cared more about Sophie than Sophie would ever know.


	5. Chapter 5

Keefe hauled Sophie up from the rocky ground, huffing and puffing. "Whew, Foster needs to lose more weight. She's super heavy," He stood her two lifeless feet on the ground, pretending that she was alive and walking. "C'mon, Foster, walk faster!"

"Or you just need to train more of your muscles," retorted Dex. "Seriously, I think I'm stronger than you."

"Nope, you aren't," replied Keefe swiftly, to cover up the fact that he was actually feeling slightly flustered right now. "If you were, you wouldn't need Fitz's help to carry Sophie to the Healing Center that time." Keefe gestured helplessly to the limp body. "Help me, if you _are_ that strong!"

Dex ignored his snide remark, took the other side of Sophie, and they lifted her off the ground.

"How do you find a luster-producing machine here—or something like that?" Keefe asked Dex. He glanced at Dex, and sagged. "Why don't you have a cape? I thought you had one at the start of the trip."

"That's the perks of not being part of Nobility," said Dex innocently. He pointed towards the sky, where a big sign with a money symbol ($) towered over the rest of the buildings. "And that means money."

Keefe looked at it intently, his photographic memory recording the sign inside his mind. "Cool. Let's go there and get some dollars...and how does this work? Like, do you just say 'Hey, some money, S!' or what?"

"S?"

"Y'know, the money sign."

"That is _not_ the money sign."

They headed in the direction of the 'money sign'. There turned out to be a small rectangular area with a lot of ATMs. Lines of people were queuing.

"We can't afford to waste time," groaned Dex. "How can we get past all these humans?"

Keefe smirked. "Please, you're talking to a master prankster. A little stinky stuff here, a little diversion there, poof! They'd run away screaming."

He reached into his bag that he had secretly packed for the trip. He still remembered when Glitter Butt had played with him at Havenfield; he had scooped some of the sparkly poop and stored it for later use.

He _knew_ that it would come into use someday.

"Dex, can you make all these machines go crazy? Please, please, please, please, please?" begged Keefe.

Dex sighed. "Fine," he said in defeat, throwing his hands up as he furrowed his brow. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

After a while, there was a loud screeching siren from the ATMs.

Keefe nearly hugged him. "That's why you're my best partner in crime."

He had smeared the glittery poop on the borders of the rectangular area. A stinking smell drifted up to their noses. Soon, true to Keefe's word, all the people ran away screaming.

Dex grinned mischievously. "Let's go."

He fixed all the ATMs with no problem, and pressed a few metal buttons and keyed in some numbers on the metal keypad. Despite himself, Keefe's heart stayed in his throat, hammering nervously as he watched Dex whistle a peaceful tune, tapping his fingers on the plastic as he waited for the ATM to send out the receipt and cash.

"One thousand." he whispered. Cash began to roll out of the little slot. He stuffed it under his cape. "Let's go hand it to them."

They sauntered out of the bank, carrying Sophie with them.

Behind them, Keefe thought he heard a small rustling noise.

He turned around cautiously and scanned the area. There was nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

Biana had to practically drag Fitz to a little fashion store in a small alley: _Firenze Moda. _Fitz was reluctant to go in, as—one, it was dirty and battered—and two, they were in alleys, and everyone knew bad things happen in alleys.

"Okay, maybe I didn't expect this," said Biana, awe in her voice, "but now I know _not_ to judge a clothes store by its exterior." The interior had a gleaming marble floor, and thin metal racks stood neatly on the ground, with fashionable clothes hanging onto them. A cashier sat on a sleek black chair with a cloak-like fabric draped over it, a friendly smile on her face.

"Don't tell me you'll ransack the whole shop."

"I am tempted to do so, but no. Let's get to business!"

They decided to buy a casual outfit and a travel outfit each for each elf - but keep their elf clothes - so that humans wouldn't stare at them when they were in the Forbidden Cities. Fitz got to choose the boys' clothes, and Biana got to choose Sophie and hers.

Fitz, obviously, started with himself first. He chose a dark blue jacket that went down to his knees. It kind of reminded him of capes. Then a pair of black ripped jeans and a simple tee-shirt. He didn't like it at all, but he had to bear with it.

_The Black Swan is more important,_ he told himself.

Dex was such a scowling idiot - to him - so he just grabbed a few random fabrics and went on with Keefe, the prankster and his best friend. Fitz grinned. It was the perfect opportunity to humiliate the so-confident elf. He chose everything yellow. Yellow tee-shirt, yellow pants and yellow shoes - to match his blonde hair.

Fitz could imagine his devastated face when he tried the outfits on. Shopping in the Forbidden Cities was actually quite _fun_.

He couldn't believe he was thinking that.

Finally, they were done - Biana, as usual, took _much_ longer. Fitz looked at the girly clothes she had picked and sighed.

"What?" asked Biana sharply.

"Nothing."

She rolled her eyes, and looked down at his clothes. "Okay, that's chic, I'm not sure about Dex, though, and-WAIT, WHAT?"

Biana pointed to the all yellow outfit. "That's horrible-looking! Remind me to give you a good lecture about not picking the same colour for all the sets. Who's that for?"

Fitz couldn't quite keep the big grin out of his face. "Keefe."

"_What? No!"_ Biana cried out, lunging at Fitz, but Fitz dodged easily and snatched the clothes out of her hands, and handed them to the clearly amused cashier.

Dex and Keefe, along with an unconscious Sophie, burst into the store. "_There you are!_ Here, the money." Keefe thrust out a wad of paper cash to Fitz. Fitz gave the whole wad to the cashier.

She laughed, amusement laced in her silvery voice. "No, _signor_, I don't expect to receive such a huge amount of money when the cost is just thirteen Euros."

Then suddenly, her smile vanished, all serious.

She took off the cloak-like fabric from the chair and swirled it over her shoulders. Taking a pin that had a red triangle crisscrossed by two gray lines set against a background of blue, she pinned the two sides of the fabric over her shoulders.

Fitz could tell that the fabric was a cape now, and she was an elf. But who was she? Working for the Council?

His heart sank. Had the Council already found them?

Just then, Keefe let out a gasp. He was pointing at her. Fitz glanced at her. He didn't know what Keefe was trying to show.

Keefe shook his head. "Look _harder."_

Fitz stared intently at the elf, who was smirking at them, her arms crossed and her aquamarine eyes flashing with a certain motive Fitz couldn't distinguish.

That was when he saw the patch with a white circle with an eye in the center on the left sleeve.

This elf was part of the Neverseen.

How did they find them so fast?

The elf clapped her hands seven times, and a hidden panel slid open, followed by a group of the all-too familiar group of elves with dark hoods covering their faces, holding glinting silver melders in their hands.

Fitz glanced at the cuff around Sophie's wrist, and made his decision.

Joining the Black Swan meant they had to fight.

Removing the cuff around Sophie's wrist - that could enhance the effects of a punch - Fitz clamped it onto his wrist instead.

They had no time to lose.


	7. Chapter 7

Dex watched Fitz remove the punch-enhancer from Sophie and put it on him instead.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Dex sharply. He wasn't too fond of Wonderboy.

Fitz shrugged. "She's unconscious now. It wouldn't do too good to her, right?"

Before Dex could say anything, the elf in front of them laughed.

Cackled, in fact. She was obviously bored, but the Neverseen was like that. Always bored, but could strike any moment they wanted to.

The other hooded elves laughed with her too.

She tossed her black shiny hair over her shoulders. "Well, well. It seems that Sophie isn't wide awake now, huh? Gives us even more chance to carry out our plan."

"Who are you?" called Biana, her voice ringing out, surprisingly firm.

"You can drop the mock bravery, Biana" - Biana flinched at her name - "it's no use anyway. And my name is confidential. Sooner or later, Sophie will never awaken ever again.

Dex curled his hands into fists. But the girl might be right - anyway, Sophie hadn't woken up for a very long time already - it might be true... He looked the pretty elf in the eye, a deep aqua blue, so entrancing.

Silent words rang through his mind. _It is true, it is true and will always be. You know it's true. Sophie will _**_never_**_ wake up, so you can give up on her... Right now, right here. Just surrender and everything will be alright... You will see your parents again._

Dex nodded. His parents. He did miss them, and he wanted to go home. He'd better surrender. Right now.

Dex slowly started to raise his hands, in a trance, and when he looked at the others; they were also doing the same thing as he was -

He gasped as the realization dawned on him and erased the misty fog that had surrounded him.

"_Look out! She's a MESMER!"_ he screamed as loud as he could.

Fitz, Keefe and Biana flinched and hesitated, putting their hands down, their faces clearing.

"How dare you!" shouted Biana.

"You need to go to all of Keefe's Stinkiest Places in the World," added Keefe. "Not to forget sparkly alicorn poop."

Fitz just said, "There's another Mesmer, other than Grady? Is this one registered? I bet she isn't."

The elf's face was thunderstruck as she glared at Dex. Dex was careful not to look at her, if she dared to mesmerize him again. She closed her eyes, and then opened them again, flashing with anger.

"Guys, don't look at her," Dex warned.

"You fool!" she hissed. "Egnor, shoot him."

The closest elf covered in a hood closed on him, melder raised.

Dex was paralyzed with fear as he recalled that time when Gethen had shot him several times with a melder. It was agony and pain. He didn't want to experience that again.

He barely saw Fitz run up and punch the hooded elf. He gasped, and fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

Fitz stared at the bleeding elf, and then at his fist. "Whew! Della _has_ to get me one of these."

Biana vanished in thin air, and then appeared again, tackling another Neverseen to the ground and vanishing again.

The elf growled in anger, and then slowly reached for his melder.

His fingers closed around it, then pointed it at the unconscious Sophie left on the ground.

"_NO!"_ screamed Dex, Fitz, Biana and Keefe.

The elf ignored them and shot Sophie twice. The body jerked scarily.

"Egnor, that's enough!" The girl elf stomped her feet angrily and disappeared through the secret panel. The Neverseen followed her.

Before they disappeared completely, the girl stuck out her head again, gave a smirk, and said, "Don't get haughty about this time, kids. Just because we disappear again doesn't mean we will disappear forever."

With that, she melted away. The secret panel closed up with a _bang._

The store was a mess. They ignored it and ran to Sophie.

Biana turned her around and examined her carefully. "Hmmm, where did that guy shoot her? Ah, there!"

She pointed to Sophie's left arm, where an ugly hole was.

Dex tried not to gag as Biana squeezed out the two melder shots.

"Here," said Biana, handing the two melder shots to Dex.

Dex stared at the blood on them. "What for?"

"You're a Technopath, right? They might come into use sometime."

"Sure," muttered Dex as he stuffed them under his cape, watching as Biana used two fingers to poke Sophie, where the skull and neck just met. "What are you doing?"

"Just in case," said Biana as Sophie twisted and turned. "Oh my! Wait! I think..."

She didn't complete her sentence as Sophie opened her eyes slowly, blinking.

"Huh," was all she said.

Keefe peeked over at her and said, "Oh good, Foster, you're awake. Lots and lots of things have happened when you were having your beauty sleep."

Biana scowled, elbowing him. "Watch your mouth." She helped Sophie up slowly. "Sophie, you alright?"

"Good," said Sophie. Then she looked around, bemused. "Wait, what happened here?"

"The Neverseen. They caught up with us. Oh and they have a Mesmer." Fitz looked at Dex. "Hey, thanks for pulling us out of the reverie. We'll be doomed without you."

Dex's feelings went up, even though the compliment was from a Vacker. "No problem."

"Where did they go?" asked Sophie. "Grady just met his match, then. Another Mesmer!"

Keefe pointed at the secret panel.

"There's nothing there!" said Sophie, confused.

Dex was about to clap his hands - as that was what the girl had done - but Keefe restrained him. "We don't know what will happen."

"Well, it's worth a try." said Biana. Her usually perfect face was smeared with blood, and she looked weary and tired.

She clapped her hands seven times.

The panel slid open. They waited for hooded elves to pop in, but nothing happened.

"Let's go," said Sophie.

"Wait," interrupted Fitz. "How do you know it's not a trap? And we're supposed to go to the Black Swan, not the Neverseen."

Sophie sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "We don't have a choice. And who knows what will happen again if I teleport again."

Nobody could argue with that.

They laced their fingers together and crept into the hole.


	8. Chapter 8

The tunnel was dark and damp. Sophie couldn't see anything.

Her heart pounded furiously as she reached into her cape and pulled out a bottle of starlight from Zelenie.

Instantly, the emerald glow of light flooded the tunnel, enabling Sophie to see. It was very narrow, and they kept bumping into each other.

"Single file, guys," said Sophie as she bumped into Fitz and fell down. "Oops, sorry!"

Fitz helped her up slowly. "No worry."

She shrugged, then saw Dex glaring at Fitz. Rolling her eyes, Sophie led the others straight forward, until they reached a fork in the tunnel. There were two ways.

"Which way?" she wondered. Their progress had been slow, and she didn't want to waste any more time. Sophie could tell that the others were weary, too.

Keefe looked thoughtful. "The right side's bright, and the left side has more shadow. Since the Neverseen _are_ shadowy guys..."

Fitz shook his head. "What, it can't be that easy. It could be a trap for all you know."

"Well, there's no harm in trying, is there?" Keefe strode towards the left side of the tunnel.

Sophie and Biana yanked him back with his cape.

"Oh no you don't!" warned Biana.

"We have to go together," added Sophie. "And we should look on the brighter side. It's too obvious if it's the dark side, right?"

Keefe sighed. "_Fine."_

They walked into the right tunnel. Instantly, Fitz stopped.

"What?" snapped Dex. "Why did you stop?"

Fitz scowled, and went on. The tunnel got brighter and brighter by every second, until it blared into Sophie's eyes, making her squint. Sophie hastily stuffed the bottle of starlight back into her cape. She was glad that she felt no pain like back then when she had lost her impenetrable mind.

The Black Swan had been on her side then, but she still didn't trust them.

She couldn't trust anybody. But she trusted Fitz.

Her friends trusted her too.

Fitz stopped abruptly again. "Look!" he exclaimed, pointing.

Sophie looked, and gasped. The tunnel had come to a dead end.

"I don't believe it," she muttered angrily. "So we were...wrong?"

"Told you so," smirked Keefe.

Sophie kicked the cemented wall. Then stopped.

_Wait,_ she told herself. Sophie looked at the walls beside them. They were made of rock.

Not cement.

Could the dead end be _not_ a dead end?

"Hey, guys," she called. "Look, the wall in front of us is made of cement. But the side walls are rock."

Keefe brightened. "What, really?" He ran his fingers along the walls. "When we were walking, were those rocks?"

"Yeah, duh." Dex volunteered.

"So..." said Biana. "Any idea how to break cement? Is alchemy involved?"

"Probably," admitted Dex. "Y'know, alkahest and piquatine..."

Sophie shuddered. Piquatine had burned off her skin once, because of the ogre homing device enzymes. "But how? We don't even know how to make or get it, and we don't have a Conjurer, anyway..."

Her voice trailed off when a round bottle suddenly appeared on the rocky ground.

"Who's a Conjurer now?" whispered Sophie softly as she picked up the glass bottle with shaky hands.

_Piquatine._

"None of us," said Fitz. "It must be someone else. Your brain will stretch even more if you had _yet_ another ability."

He was right. Sophie didn't feel anything Conjurer-ish.

Sophie gave a shaky smile as she uncorked the bottle. "Well, here goes nothing."

She poured the thin red liquid all over the cement.

Sophie hoped that they were ready for the Neverseen.

She tried not to look as the shiny red liquid dissolved the grey wall and revealed a black door.

Imagine her surprise when she looked at the symbol on the door.

It had the sign of the swan embedded on it.


	9. Chapter 9

"I . . . don't understand," muttered Sophie. "Is this really the Black Swan's hideout, or just a trap?" Glancing at the door warily, she turned to Fitz. "You know how to get to the round window, right? Does this make any sense to you?"

Her sweaty fingers clutched the half-empty piquatine bottle, sliding down and almost dropping it. No . . . it was too precious. She couldn't afford to lose it. They might need it for something else.

Fitz shook his head. "No, I only knew-"

Dex shushed him. "Shhh! Anyone could be listening now, especially the Neverseen."

They fell silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

Keefe broke the endless silence by saying, "Okay, you just made it sound so creepy. Like they're watching us, hidden, oh, I don't know, using a Spyball or something?"

Sophie gasped. "That's it! Spyballs!"

_Did you bring yours with you?_ Fitz transmitted.

She shook her head. _No, since it was Edaline who packed my bag, and she doesn't know that I have one-_

Keefe snickered. "Awww, no secret telepathic conversations with each other when Keefe is around."

They both jumped and blushed beet red.

"So," interrupted Dex. "What about Spyballs?"

"Maybe they watched us with the Spyball."

"So?" countered Biana. "Mr Forkle watched you with a _Spyball?_ That seems unbelievable" - she sighed. "I miss Foxfire. Even Dame Alina. Oh, wait - it's not her anymore. It's _Magnate Leto Kerlof."_

She ended with a dramatic flourish that sent them giggling.

But then Sophie stopped, a sudden doubt dawning on her.

"Biana, how do you spell 'Kerlof'?" she asked frantically. She needed to clarify this _now._

"K-E-R-L-O-F," replied Biana. "Why?"

But Sophie was one step ahead of her. "If you re-arrange the letters K-E-R-L-O-F," she gasped again, "Guess what?"

"What?" asked Fitz, Keefe, Dex and Biana.

"You get _'Forkle'!"_ Sophie told them, and they gasped too.

So Magnate Leto was Mr Forkle. And then she remembered he had also used 'you kids' twice too.

Why didn't she notice before?

So that was why Magnate Leto had told her not to tell the Councillors she could still hear his thoughts with the ability restrictor. Why he had always supported her in everything, why he had always helped her.

He was Mr Forkle.

"Wow," breathed Keefe. "I did _not_ see that coming."

"Me too." Biana joined in.

"Me three." Fitz added.

"Me...Four." Dex did not seem too happy to be the last one.

Gathering her scattered thoughts, Sophie took a deep breath.

She had been too focused on the symbol on the door that she didn't even try to open the door.

Grasping the silver knob, she turned it.

It clicked, and opened. It was unlocked.

She stepped in, followed by her friends.


	10. Chapter 10

"I don't care, Grady. We're getting a Spyball." snaps Edaline as she paces around the vast area of space. The smell of fresh flowers fills the air, but Edaline is too stressful to appreciate anything. She is deeply concerned about Sophie. Has anything bad happened to her yet? What is she doing now?

Alden, Della, Juline and Kesler have visited them earlier - and left. Now they are alone, and Edaline has decided to voice her opinion out.

They can get a Spyball—with the Spyball—they can watch Sophie anytime they want. It is the best solution, but it is the hardest one.

She cannot afford to lose another daughter again. She knows she is quite an emotional outbreak sometimes, but she cannot help it. Other people have never experienced losing their daughter so suddenly before - it is total grief and sadness. Fear and rage.

A vision of a smiling Jolie appears in her mind, but she pushes it away before she can feel anything or react. It is too painful to think about.

_Run, don't walk away,_ she remembers these words she has spoken to Sophie before. Covering her eyes with her hands, Edaline slumps down onto a luxurious couch right below a glimmering chandelier.

Grady, whom is sitting on an elegant chair, sighs and rakes his fingers through his blonde hair. "I'll see what I can do," he finally says, "but it'll be too hard. We're not really back into the Nobility yet-"

"You're an Emissary." interrupts Edaline.

"Well, and then as you know Spyballs are very hard to get. Even Alden doesn't have one."

Edaline slumps down even further. "Then, only the Council. And maybe Sir Tiergan has one."

"Sir Tiergan? Would Sir Tiergan have one?" asks Grady. "He's not part of Nobility-"

"Yes, but he _was_ before. And he still is." Edaline interjects, tapping her fingers on the mahogany surface, causing a continuous _click-clack_ sound.

Grady sighs again, then smiles. "You are quite eager to see Sophie, huh?" He embraces her, patting her back.

Edaline, tightens her hold around Grady and smiles back sweetly. "As eager as I'll always be."

The glimmering city of Eternalia overwhelms Grady and Edaline. They are not used to being outside. Edaline shields her turquoise eyes from the glaring light, and gazes around.

The Council has already rebuilt the capital of the Lost Cities, Eternalia. True to Councillor Emery's word, the rebuilt city is even more beautiful than the previous one which has been destroyed by the Everblaze set by Fintan.

Edaline knows Sophie has suffered a huge blow from that, but an even huger blow from the death of Councillor Kenric and the circlet that has restricted her abilities.

She glances at Grady. He looks wearier, older for some reason. And dark circles, which she has never seen before, below his eyes. She wants to know what happened, but Grady won't speak anything about it. Edaline hopes he returns to normal.

They head to Sir Tiergan's office. The Council has been reluctant to let Tiergan return to Nobility.

The door opens and Tiergan stands there, a surprised but relieved look on his face. His blond hair stands in sharp contrast with his dark, tanned skin.

"Grady and Edaline!" he exclaims. "What a pleasure to see you here. What are you here for?"

Grady grunts good-naturally. "Don't ask me," he says, "ask Edaline." He gestures to her.

Edaline rolls her eyes sarcastically.

Tiergan looks at her with great interest, then shrugs. "Come on in," he says, leading them in.

"A Spyball?" Tiergan frowns. "Why do you need a Spyball for?"

"Because of over-protectiveness of Sophie," grumbles Grady.

"_Grady!"_ says an exasperated Edaline. "You know how I feel. Even if you're not an Empath."

She can't believe Grady doesn't care about Sophie - after they lost Jolie-

_Don't even think about it,_ she warns herself.

Before Grady can say anything, Tiergan pulls him back smoothly. "I understand that you want to check if Sophie is alright or not?" he asks Edaline.

Edaline nods excitedly, a million emotions rushing through her.

Tiergan stands up from his seat. "Wait here, and don't do anything silly while you're alone. Yes, I have a Spyball. But it'll have to stay here, I can't lend it to you. I can only show you Sophie."

The transparent glass sphere stands on a sleek black table.

Edaline squats down and stares at it, followed by Grady. Tiergan stands far behind them, crossing his arms and tapping his leg.

"Show me Sophie Foster," she whispers as blue mist clouds up in the Spyball. Then the mist gradually fades, a blurry image focusing as Edaline grabs the sharp table edge, barely noticing the pain.

A familiar blonde girl grasps a silver knob on a smooth black door.

Edaline notices that the door has the sign of the swan embedded on it. Have they made it to the Black Swan already?

Sophie. Edaline's shoulders relax when she recognizes her. But what happened to her? Why is she so dirty? Why does she have an ugly red wound on her left arm?

Behind her is Dex, Keefe, Fitz and Biana. They look weary and tired too.

Sophie pushes open the door and steps into the dark room, followed by her friends. A silhouette of a slender man stands in wait of them. Edaline squints at him. She thinks she has seen him before, but where?

Just then, a knock sounds on the door. Tiergan takes the Spyball away just as the image fades. He puts it away in somewhere Edaline can't see. Then he races to answer the door, while Grady and Edaline casually sit on the comfortable couches.

Edaline wonders who it is.

The door opens and Councilor Emery and Councilor Alina step in.


	11. Chapter 11

The room was dark and damp. Sophie couldn't see anything. She stretched out her fingers in front of her face. Yep, she couldn't see them.

Sophie could sense a presence around, but where was it? She stumbled blindly forward and hit something hard and cold.

There was a sound of shattering glass, and liquid splashed onto the ground. Then a zooming noise swiped across her, blowing her blonde hair and covering her face.

Then Sophie remembered the bottle of starlight under her cape. Of course! She took it out, and instantly the room flooded with a calming emerald green light.

There was a black round table in the middle of the rounded room, and on the table was an elegantly carved ceramic bowl with a sheen that was probably glaze. Graceful-looking swans were embedded on it. This obviously belonged to the Black Swan.

She looked over to a corner in the room, and gasped. Fitz, Dex, Keefe and Biana were huddled there, blindfolded and tied up with thick rough rope.

Anger boiled in Sophie and she clenched her fists. Did the Black Swan do this? Now she knew _for sure_ she couldn't trust the Black Swan. But how many confirmations did she really need?  
When Sophie looked up, she could see ten stars each placed in a different position. A constellation. Cygnus.

_Typical of the Black Swan, _Sophie thought bitterly.

Sophie's eyes widened. She heard a tiny sound behind her on the left. Whirling around cautiously, she scanned the area. There was nothing. Although...she sworn she _had_ heard something.

Then she looked at a particular spot that seemed to be bright and dark at the same time, and it was as if the air around it was constantly shifting. Her eyes seemed to slide over it, like it was too unimportant to care about.

Sophie persisted. She was _sure_ someone was hiding there. But Vanishers didn't hide like that.

Forcing her eyes to stay at the spot, Sophie walked over and not really knowing what she was doing, took a swipe at the empty spot.

The air shifted, and Sophie touched empty air. Sophie got frustrated, and shouted, "Come on out! I know you are there."

When there was no answer, she stomped her feet furiously and muttered, "Such a coward."

Suddenly a voice that sounded like a boy spoke. "No. I'm not a coward. I'm not a coward!" Then there was a pause, and the voice spoke again, sounding panicked this time. "Oh no. Oh no!"

Sophie smiled wickedly. "So, come on out. I already know you're there, so what's the point of hiding now?"

Muttering sounds came out of nowhere. It sounded like the boy was cursing Sophie. The air shifted again and a boy appeared. He had dark maroon eyes and auburn hair that hung down to his ears.

"Where's Kerlof?" Sophie asked him, hoping that Kerlof _was_ Mr Forkle's real name.

The boy's face twisted into a scowl. "I'm not telling, Moonlark."

Sophie flinched at the word 'Moonlark'. She still wasn't used to the name Project Moonlark.

"Don't call me that," She rubbed her wrists. "Release my friends."

"Do it yourself. It wasn't me who did this. It was somebody else. Nope, not going to tell you who."

She sighed, and deftly untied the rope and took down their blindfolds.

When Sophie saw their tired faces, she almost burst into tears. Biana's usually perfect face had blood splattered on it, and the others' had dirt and grime smeared on them.

Sophie dropped her hands down. It _was_ her fault that they had turned into this state.

A hint of guilt trickled into her body, but she blocked it. She wasn't going to let guilt break her mind. She was supposed to be Project Moonlark. She was supposed to be _strong._ Powerful. Not weak and broken. Especially in front of the Black Swan.

Sophie slapped her friends' faces. "Wake up. Wake up!"

They moaned and muttered, but they blinked their eyes open slowly. Fitz tried to stand up but failed, his knees buckling and he collapsed on the concrete ground.

"Come on." pressed Sophie, helping them up one by one.

"What happened? Where are we? Who is he?" asked Biana warily, pointing to the boy.

"I don't know," said Sophie truthfully.

The boy was muttering under his breath. He seemed to be saying, "Sora, don't show yourself."

Then a tinkling voice sounded, ringing loudly. "The more you tell me not to do something, the more I want to do that thing."

A girl that looked almost identical to the boy appeared.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Sorajin, but everyone calls me Sora."

She had an accent that Sophie couldn't distinguish for a split second. "You're Japanese?" she asked incredulously. Japanese people were the ones who had started World War II. "But how? If you're an elf, how can you be Japanese?"

Sora smiled. "My brother - Soreas - is too – sort of, but he hasn't quite the accent-"

"Hey!" Soreas said indignantly.

Sora ignored him. "But we _are _elves. We're not really Japanese; we're just super expert at the language. We're Polyglots too. But that's not the sole special ability we have."

"What special abilities do you have?" asked Fitz.

Sophie thought: _A second special ability! I'm not the only one!_

But Soreas interrupted. "Sora," he began, "if you didn't notice, it's already time to lead them to . . . you know where."

Sophie still had tons of questions running through her mind, but she waited, and followed Soreas, Sorajin, Fitz, Dex, Keefe and Biana to two swinging doors situated at the back of the rounded room.

Questions could wait. Now, it was time to meet the Black Swan.


	12. Chapter 12

They approached a corridor of identical round windows, paved with yellow stones and rimmed with a small sign of the window.

_So this _**_is_**_ where we were supposed to go,_ realized Sophie. Tracing her fingers on the rough yellow stones, she looked at Soreas and Sora. "Aren't you guys afraid that someone - like let's say - the Neverseen - will find out your base? Then why carve those swans around the window? Even from my memory I could see it."

Sora just stared at her. "You're the one that the Black Swan spent ages planning about, right? Project Moonlark?"

Sophie grimaced. "Yeah." They continued walking along the dark corridor.

"Amazing," she breathed. "That means you must be even more powerful than we are. See, me and Soreas are well-known, 'cause we got two abilities, and our second abilities are a Terrakinetic and a Guster. Elemental abilities are often looked down by normal elves, but the Black Swan knows that they are important."

"Oh, stop praising her, Sora," Soreas cut in. "She'll get a swollen head from all these praise. Kerlof wouldn't like that."

Sophie perked up. Keefe said, "Oh, so you're taking us to that old dude? That's fine by me. It would be fun to see him again."

Sora looked at him sternly. "It's not about fun, Kit-"

"Keefe," Keefe corrected.

"-Keefe," continued Sora, oblivious to the glare that Biana was giving her, "that is the absolute last thing that is important. Now, what would be a good example, your m-?"

Sophie put a finger on Sora's lips. They were dry and cracked. "Don't say a word."

"A word," said Sora and Soreas in unison.

Keefe cracked up. He didn't seem to notice the fact that Sora was about to say 'mum' before Sophie stopped her. Sophie released her breath as Fitz and Dex laughed with Keefe. Biana didn't say anything. Her lips were pursed and curled downwards. Sophie didn't have to be a Telepath to know that she was jealous of Sora for making Keefe laugh.

They had reached a dead end in the corridor, where there was a dark cave opening. Sophie could practically feel the coldness radiating off from the cave opening. She shivered, both because of the cold and the scariness of the menacing-looking entrance. She glanced at Keefe, Fitz, and Biana and they was shivering too. Dex seemed okay, though.

"Hey, how come you're not cold?" complained Sophie as she pulled her cape tighter around her shoulders.

Dex grinned. "You forgot I can regulate my body temperature."

"Oh..." Sophie was jealous. "Please say you'll teach me?"

"Maybe."

"Oh, come on..."

"_Maybe." _repeated Dex stubbornly.

Soreas and Sorajin led them inside. The temperature dropped lower and lower, until even Dex was shivering. It was dark, but not as dark as the room that they'd been in earlier.

Soreas looked back at them. "Rather cold, huh? And dark too. Maybe this will help you."

He snapped his fingers three times, and suddenly, blue tongues of fire leapt out from identical torches lining the rocky walls of the cave. The cave instantly lit up, and when Sophie looked up, she could see a big jutted hole knocked out from the ceiling of the cave. It was sealed up with cement.

"Is that where we're going to go?" asked Sophie.

"No," said Soreas shortly. "That's strictly prohibited." He pointed at another hole, slightly smaller this time, and continued, "That's the one."

"How are we going to get up there?" inquired Fitz.

"It's easy when you have control over Earth. Or Air," answered Sora, ignoring yet another glare shot by Biana, "Soreas, you take care of the boys. I'll do Sophie and Biana. You go first."

Sophie rubbed her eyes in confusion as Fitz, Keefe and Dex floated up and into the hole. Soreas followed them up too.

"How did they do that?"

"Since he's a Guster, Soreas manipulated the air around the boys and lifted them up. Simple as that," Sora answered. "Now, my way is much more complicated, so brace yourself."

Sophie tried her best to brace herself when the rocky ground suddenly rumbled and vibrated.

"Wait, what's going on?" yelled Biana, frightened.

Sophie tried to plant her feet on the ground as firmly as possible. Then she could feel herself rising upwards.

Wait,_ what? _she yelled inside her mind as she looked down and saw the ground actually moving _upwards._

Laughter echoed around the cave as Sora, who was next to her, giggled. "That's the awesome power of a Terrakinetic. You can control any earthen material, or the ground, and if you're strong enough, which I am not - yet - you can even have access to gravity!"

Even Biana had to gasp at that, but her voice was soon lost as they went through the hole and up into another place.

"Quick, walk forward two steps!" Sora instructed them as the ground that had temporarily filled the hole up went down quickly.

Sophie could hear a loud _bang _as she looked up at the people around her. There were her other friends - and Soreas - a few other adults that she didn't recognize, and an all-too familiar person.

Mr. Forkle. Or should she say Mr. _Kerlof?_


	13. Chapter 13

A million emotions shot through Sophie, but she only could identify some. Fear, excitement, impatience.

She stared at Mr Forkle. He was still wearing his ruckleberry-induced disguise. She still didn't feel like using his real name - or if it was. It was way too awkward and weird-

"You kids," grumbled Mr Forkle, starting with his favourite phrase. He gestured to Sora and Soreas and her friends. "Get lost. Sophie and I have some talking to do."

"B-but, Sir Kerlof," stammered Sorajin. "Sh-she knows y-you..."

"Thank you, Sorajin," snapped Mr Forkle. "That will be all."

Sophie glanced at the other adults. They were hunched over some scrolls bearing the sign of the swan. then a memory—hers this time—surfaced up.

They were similar to the scrolls Sophie had seen with Grady long time ago, when she had just came to live in Havenfield.

Was Grady involved in the Black Swan in any way? Sophie knew that the Black Swan had tried to recruit him, but was that all? Was there any bigger...secret? That Grady didn't want her to know about?

Sophie shook her head. She trusted Grady, and if there _was_ something she didn't know, she knew Grady would have a valid reason.

He waited, crossing his arms, until they reluctantly walked away, slamming the doors as they left.

Mr Forkle rolled his eyes. Then he took something from a familiar bowl on the sleek black table. That was when Sophie realized they were in the same room that she and her friends had been in earlier, only that the room was lit up now.

She watched in wonder as Mr. Forkle's appearance started to change drastically. His bloated stomach shrank tremendously, and the wrinkles on his skin vanished magically, until he changed into someone Sophie could easily recognize any day.

"Master Leto!"

Mr. Forkle seemed to smile a little as he covered the plate back onto the bowl. "You found out about that earlier than I expected you too."

"What are those?" asked Sophie.

"Subeberries. They smooth your skin down and take your fat off."

Like she would try one of those. She didn't need her skin smoothing down. She was skinny enough.

And Sophie was sure that subeberries were just as revolting as ruckleberries.

But that wasn't the point.

Sophie stalked up to Mr. Forkle, forcing herself to look into his eyes. She saw the same ancient look in his eyes that she had seen in Master Leto's eyes.

"I need answers."

"Answers?" scoffed Mr. Forkle, "you didn't come to join us just because of _answers_, did you?"

Sophie shook her head, anger coursing through her veins. Of course she didn't! What did Mr Forkle take her for? She was just impatient to find out what was the truth behind her past and her telepathy.

Mr Forkle held her gaze, and a look of understanding flashed across his face. "I see. But you have to know- Sophie - that answers come with a price. We have to test your capability before we can completely trust you to give you the answers. And remember - the secrets that we keep from you are deadly. If they get into the wrong hands, I can assure you wholeheartedly that they would not stop at _anything_ to use it to harm the world."

Sophie gave a little shudder. "Even resorting to killing millions of people - even humans?"

"Even resorting to killing millions of people. Especially humans."

Sophie gasped. "But why? Why humans?"

A moving image of her human family surrounded in flames with the hooded elves laughing evilly and Sophie at a loss.

Mr Forkle grunted. "You have a wild imagination, Sophie. Don't think too much about it, and focus on your work-"

"What work?" asked Sophie suspiciously. She wasn't taking any chances.

"You'll find out later. Well, as you were asking, why humans, it's because the Council tends to overlook human matters. You should know that."

Sophie did. Last time, when the fires burned white-hot and Sophie and Alden were suspicious that an elf had did it, the Council had ignored it, stating that it was an unimportant matter. Sophie couldn't blame them. About sixty years ago, the humans had started to build powerful weapons of mass-destruction. They were so obsessed about power and fame that even when the elves had begged them to stop, they didn't.

The Council knew that humans were becoming too dangerous for their own good, so they severed the treaty between elves and humans.

"So what if they tend to overlook human matters?" asked Sophie, but her mind was already putting the pieces together.

"If they overlook human matters, the Neverseen could do anything they wanted to humans - even destroy the whole race of them. The Council would be too happy that the humans were gone to bring the Neverseen to justice. Instead, they'd be treated like heroes. And" - he gestured to the people in the room - "the Black Swan would crumble into nothingness."

Sophie's legs felt like jelly, and she was sure they were about to collapse. Leaning on the hard edge of the table, she felt disgusted by the Neverseen.

So that was their plan? To destroy the human race? Sophie was sure they'd kill the Council and the Black Swan too.

Her head spun around dizzily, and she could see purple and yellow dots blocking fractions of her vision. She blinked, and directed her gaze at Mr Forkle again.

Mr Forkle looked worried. "You clearly need some rest. Soreas - or Sorajin will lead you to your room. But don't get too comfortable there."

He was about to turn his gaze away when Sophie cried out, "Wait! Who are" - she pointed to the adults, who were staring at her amusingly, but they looked a little annoyed too - "these people?"

Mr Forkle tilted his head to his side. "This is only a little part of the Black Swan organization. Like I said, you'll find out everything you need to know tomorrow. Not the secrets, though."

He snapped his head towards the back of the room, in a shadowy corner. "I know you're there, Biana Vacker."

Biana appeared, grinning sheepishly as she walked slowly beside Sophie. Sophie was surprised. Biana had improved her ability by so much.

"Did you really think I didn't notice you?" Mr Forkle clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but there was a hint of amusement in his eyes. "A simple skill like Vanishing cannot fool me. That's why we will teach you our ways of hiding. Now, get back to your rooms. _Sorajin!"_ he called impatiently.

Sora came in from the door.

"Take these two to their rooms. And" - he said, glancing at Sophie - "make sure this one doesn't escape to sneak around our base at night."

Sora grinned. "Sure thing, Sir Kerlof."


	14. Chapter 14

The dim lights from the ceiling shone on the marble floor, reflecting into their faces. Sophie glanced at Sora, then she had a strange feeling that she'd seen her before.

"Have I?" she wondered aloud.

"Had you what?" asked Biana.

Sophie blinked. The strange feeling was still there. "Had I seen - you - Sora - before?" She cocked her head towards Sora.

Sora shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Hadn't anyone told you about the small population of elves? That there are many elves that are related to one another, even in the slightest bit?"

Actually Edaline had told her about the gene pool - when she was explaining about Jolie and Brant being a bad match. And matchmaking.

Sophie wrinkled her nose. Like she would want to get married. But she knew she had to, anyway.

"But still," persisted Sophie, "you really look more and more familiar each time I see you. What's your last name?" She stared at Sora intently, trying to figure out what was it.

Sora shifted uncomfortably, but she still walked on - with Sophie and Biana following her - and whispered, "If you really want to know. Well, my family name is very well known in the Nobility - but not as much as _yours,_ though" she glanced at Biana, who was folding her arms rather crossly - "but there is one particular small family in my whole family tree that is not that popular. The woman's husband was Talentless, but he managed to marry the Empath and take her surname and was still counted as part of Nobility. He was lucky."

Sophie gasped. No it couldn't be. Was it a coincidence? No, surely not . . . nobody else could be a . . .

She knew what Sora would say even before she even whispered, "My surname is Heks."

"_WHAT?"_ Sophie and Biana shouted - but Sora shushed them quickly. "Sheesh! Geez, could you be quieter? Nobody would be happy to be disturbed at night."

"You-you're a Heks? Like...Timkin and Vika and Stina Heks?"

She couldn't believe Sora and Soreas were actually _related_ to those elves who were spiteful and conceited. They looked down on bad matches too - though Timkin and Vika were already a bad match themselves.

Sophie stopped abruptly, thinking hard. What will Fitz say? What will Keefe say? And what-

"Oh no," she groaned. Dex was absolutely going to _flip_ when he heard that there were Hekses in the Black Swan. How was she going to explain to him without him freaking out?

Sora pushed Sophie on, making her stumble clumsily and almost knock down Biana. "Don't be so surprised. Maybe you could say I didn't want to join the Black Swan, but it was because of my grandmother."

"Your grandmother?" asked Biana, quavering with excitement.

"Silla Heks. She was a big part of the Black Swan." clarified Sora proudly.

Silla Heks...Sophie remembered Mr Forkle had mentioned her once when she was about to take the linbium. According to Mr Forkle, Silla Heks had once owned an alicorn - and had discovered that alicorns could inflict positive emotions, that led to Mr Forkle's idea about giving Sophie the ability to inflict positive emotions too.

So did that mean that Silla Heks was also part of Project Moonlark? She wasn't sure, but Sophie assumed that almost all of the Black Swan was involved in creating her.

Then...could she be her mother? She'd always assumed that Jolie was her mother, but Mr Forkle had erased her doubt, saying that Jolie wasn't her mother, even though if she looked like Sophie.

_Though, Mr Forkle could have been lying. You never know,_ a little voice inside her mind taunted.

"Sophie!" a sharp and clear voice snapped her continuous train of disturbing thoughts.

Sophie looked up to see Biana looking concernedly at her, and Sora slowly disappearing at the end of the corridor. She seemed to be putting her palm to her ear and talking, vanishing through an elaborately designed door. The door shut loudly and a lock snapped into place. Then she was gone.

She shook her head, and forced a smile at Biana. "I'm fine. And this is our room?"

Biana nodded excitedly, her chocolate brown curls bouncing around. "You and I are so lucky that we get to sleep together. At first I thought we wouldn't be able to, because the boys got one separate room each."

Sophie agreed heartily, her hand closing onto the knob. "Let's go in."

The room was unsurprisingly dark, painted with dark blue colours. There were no windows, and the only source of light was a lantern with a single candle in it, lighting up the room with a dim orange light. There were two single-sized beds occupying two sides of the room, and a long mahogany table with a few drawers occupied a whole wall. The only wardrobe rested in a corner of the room, the rough wood slightly infested with mold.

"It's certainly not the best quality," agreed Biana, staring at the small bed. She was probably used to the great luxuriousness in Everglen.

Sophie had to agree on that. Her large canopy bed in Havenfield was probably about four times bigger than that. But when she had lived with her human family, her human bed had been about the same size.

Sophie's eyelids started to droop. She really needed to get some rest.

"I'll go to sleep first," she told Biana.

Biana nodded. "I'm just as tired as you. C'mon, we'll go to sleep together. Maybe at the same time."

"Probably not." Sophie knew for sure she wouldn't be able to fall asleep without Silveny's calming transmitting.

"I'm sure you'll be able to, without Silveny's help this time. Just try to."

Sophie reluctantly climbed onto her bed and lay down, closing her eyes. As usual, she couldn't sleep. The fabric felt coarse, like the fabric on her human bed.

"Biana?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we made the correct decision to join the Black Swan?" Sophie paused, dreading the answer.

"You know we have no choice, anyway."

"We have another choice, actually. Two more choices, apparently. I could let myself be exiled; maybe Dex too - and we...we..."

"We what?" asked Biana drowsily.

"We could have joined the Neverseen." Sophie sighed softly. She didn't really want to join the Neverseen, though.

"No...Way...they're the bad guys. But no matter what, we'll always be with you."

"Huh." Sophie wasn't too sure that the Neverseen were the bad guys. She knew that they had killed, Jolie and Kenric, and they had already sparked Everblaze two times; even destroyed the city of Eternalia, but she didn't know for sure. What if it was the other way round?

Then she understood why Jolie had felt suspicious of the Black Swan, too.

Nobody could ever know if the Black Swan were actually the bad guys. But Sophie found it impossible to believe.

She lay down there and whispered, "Biana? Biana?" But Biana had fallen asleep. Sophie found herself falling asleep for the first time in a while.

_Tomorrow, tomorrow,_ she thought as Sophie closed her eyes and dozed off.


	15. Chapter 15

Marella stands on the smooth floor of the study hall. A window nearby her releases a gust of wind that messes her plaited hair and covers her eyes, but she ignores it as she curls the strand of hair behind her ear.

Glancing at the seat where Sophie and her friends used to be, she heads toward her usual seating table with Stina and her minions. Sophie, Dex, Biana, Fitz, and Keefe haven't been to school for almost two days, and as much as Marella hates to admit it, she misses Sophie. But she knows Sophie will never acknowledge her as her friend. The stone in her heart will never disappear.

And it is Marella's fault. Her fault.

Not Sophie's, but hers. If she hadn't been so jealous of Biana, Fitz and Dex being Sophie's friend and being involved in her most disturbing business, she and Sophie will still be friends now. She had severed ties with Sophie, and had started being Stina's friend. As a result, practically all of the other prodigies hate her now, and the nearby prodigy shoots her a venomous glare as she walks to the table where Stina and her minions are sitting at.

But she will not let the guilt break her. Never. She is stronger than she believes.

Stina and her minions ignore her uncomfortably as Marella takes out her worksheets and study books to do. Writing furiously in her book, and hardly noticing her hurried and scribbled handwriting; she finishes all her work in ten minutes flat.

Marella gasps in tiredness and leans back. She still has twenty more minutes. Glancing around at Stina, her minions and the hateful glares of the other prodigies, she decides that staying here is overrated. She stands up, her tiny strands of unkempt hair flying around her face, making her grunt and hold her hair back for a split second.

Stina looks up, a small sneer on her face. "Where do you think you're going, Redek?" she asks Marella, spite and malice laced into her voice carefully.

Marella barely even bothers to look at her as she slings her satchel over her shoulders. "I think I'm going to see Lady Veda for some missing worksheets and bottles." she lies, looking at the Mentor overseeing study hall period—Sir Astin—and he nods. Lady Veda is her Elementalism Mentor. Apparently her lie is rather convincing, because Stina loses interest and looks back down at her pile of papers, complaining loudly about homework. Marella hears Sir Astin rewarding Stina a day's worth of detention and secretly grins to herself.

Marella hurries down the stairs and walks to the platform where the Leapmaster is. A nauseous feeling stirring n her gut, she presses herself against the wall. Looking around to make sure that nobody was there, she closes her hand into a fist, and looks fearfully at it.

Does she dare to see it again? Does she dare to feel it again? That greed for power, and that feeling of satisfaction?

She will rather restrict it than use it, unlike Sophie. She doesn't want to harm anybody.

But...

Marella opens her fist slowly, and despite herself, smiles, her lips stretching to almost touch her ears, when she sees the small bright orange-yellow flames flicker and dance in her small palm.


	16. Chapter 16

"Councillor Emery and Alina." Tiergan's tone is cold but calm as he, Grady and Edaline bow before them deeply. "What can I do for you?"

Grady bets that Tiergan doesn't want to do anything for the Council except for things regarding Sophie. What has become of the Council? Since Dame Alina became a Councillor, she has become more haughty and thick-skinned. The other Councillors also has seemed to be affected by her, except for Councillor Terik, Councillor Oralie and Councillor Bronte. He is surprised by Bronte, because he usually hates Sophie.

"Grady and Edaline Ruewen. Why have you come here?" Alina's voice is light and cool but unusually heavy-sounding at the same time. She soothes her caramel-coloured hair slowly, her lips curling into a slight smile.

"How do you know?" Edaline shouts out, her turquoise eyes flashing with anger and fury. When Alina shoots her a glare and puts a slender finger on her lips, she immediately quietens down, cowering slowly.

"To see Si-I mean, Tiergan," answers Grady, remembering that Tiergan doesn't like to be called 'Sir Tiergan'.

Emery narrows his eyes in suspicion, and says, "Lady Ruewen, do not be rude to the Council."

"I'm not rude," mutters Edaline under her breath. Either Emery doesn't hear it, or he chooses to ignore it.

"You forgot that we can track any elf with the registry pendants." Emery continued.

Edaline instantly clutches her registry pendant, her warm clammy fingers failing to get a firm grip on the triangular pendant.

"Apparently, not the Black Swan," countered Grady, "or the Ne- - rebels."

He had almost said 'Neverseen'. Grady thinks it is best not to tell the Council that piece of valuable information. They were the ones who killed Jolie and Kenric. Grady's fists curl tightly as he thinks about it.

Now it is Alina's turn to narrow her eyes. "Don't forget your place, Lord Ruewen. You're not an Emissary anymore." Then her face lights up, her eyes shining like she just had an idea, and beckons Emery closer to her, pointing to her head, then his.

Emery looks hard at her before he nods. Then that is when Grady realizes he has just read Councillor Alina's mind.

"Well," he says, licking his lips nervously, and continues, "The Council will renew your position as Emissary," he smiles wickedly, "if you give us the location of the five missing children: Sophie Foster, Keefe Sencen, Fitz and Biana Vacker and Dex Dizznee."

Grady stomps his foot stubbornly, and spits out, "I will never give you any information about that, even if I _do _know anything. I don't."

"He's telling the truth." adds Edaline unhelpfully. Councillor Alina shoots her a glare and put a slender finger on her lips, and Edaline instantly quietens down, cowering slightly.

Emery snarls in frustration. "I can always read your mind. It'll be easy, you can't block."

Grady smirks. "I'd like to see you try."

Suddenly, Emery's face sags and he stares at empty space with lifeless eyes. Grady has mesmerized him.

Councillor Alina snaps, "How dare you." Her voice is quiet but dangerous, and makes Edaline shiver in fright. Alina takes out an elegant silver circlet with peridots encrusted on the edge, and starts towards Grady, her eyes glinting dangerously.

Grady is too occupied with mesmerizing Emery to lose his memory to realize Alina is rushing to him.

Edaline screams, "_NO!"_ and tries to restrain Alina. But the new Councillor is too strong, and Alina shakes Edaline off easily. Gritting her teeth, Edaline rubs her sore bottom and continues to try to stop her but to no avail. Finally, she gives up, but there was a smile on her face.

A sad smile.

Edaline pushes Grady out and sinks to her knees instead, closing her eyes and holding her breath.

When Grady finally realizes what Edaline is trying to do, he releases his memorization on Emery and almost shouts, "Don't do this, Edaline."

"Oh, I can." Edaline replies weakly.

Councillor Alina is too shocked to stop what she is doing, and unknowingly puts the circlet on top of Edaline's head.

Shouts, cries and screams echo around the room, until Grady finally realizes that they are coming from him.

Edaline slumps and collapses completely on the ground, snaps her eyes shut, writhing in pain and agony.


	17. Chapter 17

Sophie awoke to an endless pitch-darkness stretching across the room, swallowing every speck of light. Beside her, she could hear Biana's steady and peaceful breathing.

Sitting up on the bed, she rubbed her temples. What was the time now? It didn't seem it was morning now. Then how could she have woken up?

A dizzying and nauseous feeling settled in her gut, and a blasting sharp pain entered her mind - so much pain - almost as much pain as the time when her abilities had been restricted. Sophie clutched her head, moaning in pain softly, still not daring to wake Biana up.

Trying her very best to ignore the pain, Sophie took a few deep breaths and silently landed on the floor, drawing her thick and heavy cape over her shoulders and headed towards the door.

A few hairs prickled up behind her neck. Sophie whirled around. Was someone watching her? She scanned the dark room. Nothing. Grasping the knob, Sophie clicked open the door as slowly and soundlessly as possible.

The hall was pitch-dark too, except for a few dim scattering lights. Sophie cursed under her breath when she saw her shadow reflected in the orange light. Then she quickly moved into the shadows until her silhouette couldn't be seen at all. Directing her eyes towards the door that Sophie had seen Sora enter after she'd escorted them to their room, a rising temptation grew slowly in her.

Did she dare to enter the door? Sophie knew she'd probably get caught anyway, since the Black Swan could even penetrate a Vanisher, but she couldn't wait any longer. A niggling doubt appeared in her mind, shouting at her that she could wait until tomorrow, it probably wasn't that interesting anyway, but the stronger and more stubborn part of her pushed it away.

Sophie tiptoed across the room as fast as she dared to, and tried the handle slowly. It was locked. Of _course._ Sophie was about to sigh when she remembered to keep quiet. A few seconds of silence passed by as Sophie thought about what she should do. Then, her ears perked up suspiciously. Was that voices she heard? She could be wrong, but...

Pressing her ear on the smooth wood, she intently listened as the voices rose up again. But she could only hear a few little snippets of what they were saying. It seemed to be Soreas and Mr Forkle, but she couldn't be sure. Could she?

"_Suldreen...infiltrate...never...blaze...ever...seen..." _

_"Secret...weapon...stronger...traitor...reason in leak..."_

Sophie jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Peering fearfully backwards, she saw nothing. Sophie backed away from the door, then knocked into somebody. A person appeared, with brown curly hair tied back into a ponytail and sparkling teal eyes set into a perfect face. It was Biana. Sophie sighed in relief.

But when Sophie looked closely at Biana, she was shocked. She only could see Biana's head and body. Her legs were missing, so Biana looked like she was floating in mid-air.

"Luckily, you're here!" hissed Biana. "I woke up, and switched on the light, but you were missing! So I set to look for you." Her eyes looked wary as she glanced at the elaborately designed door. "Did you learn anything? What were you doing?"

Sophie put a finger on her lips, then went back into their dormitory, followed by Biana. Then Biana closed the door, locking it securely. Sitting down on Sophie's bed, Biana turned to Sophie, her eyes flashing with excitement.

"So?" she demanded. "What was there?"

Sophie shook her head. "Wait, Biana. What happened to you?"

"_What_ happened to me? I'm alright!" Biana replied, looking confused.

Sophie shook her head again, this time more hardly. "Have you looked at yourself?"

Biana gave her a look that seemed to say, _are you insulting my fashion sense?_ , then said, "No, but you-"

She trailed off, leaving her sentence half-finished as she looked down at her body, speechless. "What happened to me? I'm half-vanished. Oh...I think I know what happened. But I thought I already got the hang of vanishing. Completely."

"Apparently not," Sophie concluded for her. "So, could you, like - vanish again - right? I mean, that works, right?" She twirled her blonde hair around her index finger nervously.

Biana nodded, but she seemed unsure. "It usually does. I'll try. If it doesn't..." She put two fingers near her temples, and signaled 'crazy'.

"Do it now, if it doesn't work, we're doomed. Mr Forkle would know that we've been snooping around," whispered Sophie. "And he told Sora to make sure that we don't. We'll get her into hot water."

Biana huffed, but she nodded reluctantly and closed her eyes. Then she vanished.

"Appear," instructed Sophie, her fingers crossed hopefully.

Biana appeared, but she was still half-vanished. She looked down and put her hands up in defeat. "How am I going to explain _this?" _She glanced at Sophie. "Before you sleep, _please_ tell me what you saw."

Sophie took a deep breath and explained that she had saw Sora go in that door, so when she woke up, she eavesdropped on the conversation behind the door. Sophie had recalled the little snippets of words perfectly, thanks to her photographic memory.

"Suldreen, infiltrate, never, blaze, ever, seen, secret, weapon, stronger, traitor, reason in leak?" asked Biana, tapping her fingers one by one thoughtfully. Then she reached inside her pocket, pulled out a pen and a piece of blank paper and wrote all of the words on it. Then Sophie and Biana stared at the perfectly looped letters inked on the smooth paper.

"Suldreen means moonlark, that means me," clarified Sophie softly. "And it's most probably Neverseen, Everblaze, and secret weapon."

Biana tapped her head, then said, "Infiltrate? Infiltrate the Neverseen, maybe. Secret weapon getting stronger, traitor is the reason in leak."

After three minutes, they had nothing more than those useless bits of information.

"Try to vanish again," suggested Sophie. "Then appear again."

Biana tried again and again; to no avail. "Okay," she sighed in defeat, running a hand through her glossy hair, "we'll see what to do tomorrow. But I want to try again. You sleep first."

"But-" protested Sophie.

"You need much more sleep than I do. There's no harm in me losing a few hours of sleep. Now, go. To. Sleep."

Sophie gave up and smiled. "You are really...stubborn," she grumbled.

Biana grinned, then shrugged. "Everyone is."

It was easy to fall asleep this time. Sophie drifted off from reality and entered the dream realm.

* * *

**See you next chapter! :)**


	18. Chapter 20

Edaline can see nothing. At all. The world has twisted into a smear of colours and slowly blurring to complete darkness and pitch-black. She can hear screaming in her ears, and quiet sobs and gasps of panic as her world fades into a whirlpool of bright stars and she surrenders to the swallowing darkness after a sweet tasting syrup was pushed into her swollen mouth and a bubble of hysteria pushes up her throat.

Marella stands near the Leapmaster platform, watching the other Foxfire students blink away in the Leapmaster. Tugging at her thin braids, Marella smells a weird scent, like someone has just lit a aromatherapy candle. She kind of likes it.

Suddenly, screams of horror and terror rings into her warm ears. "Marella! Marella!" A familiar voice shouts, urging her to see who it is.

Marella sighs, whirls around impatiently and turns to face Jensi. His face was an obvious expression of shock. "Jensi? what is it?"

Jensi points at the top of her head. "Y-your hair is b-burning..."

Marella touches her hair and feels the heat of the flames flicker against her bare palm, then immediately removes it. She can't risk Jensi knowing that she was a Pyrokinetic, one of the most dangerous elves in the Lost Cities. A forbidden talent. Even Stina will not dare to come close to her anymore.

She had discovered her ability quite a long time ago and she had been troubled about it. Luckily, no one knows yet. If they knew, everyone by now will be running away from her.

Feigning a expression of fear and panic, Marella swats at her hair furiously, pretending to put out the flames. "Oh no! What am I gonna do?"

"Come on, I'll take you to the Healing Center," Jensi offers, looking at her anxiously. Marella panics. she can't have anyone, of all people - Elwin - suspect that she had indeed something to do with her burning hair. Then, of course, he will tell Magnate Leto then Magnate Leto will tell the Council then the Council will ban her ability at once. After seeing what they have done to Sophie, Marella was sure they will not hesitate to be even more ruthless to her.

Ignoring Jensi's cries of protest and the confused looks on the curious bystanders surrounding them, Marella clamps her hand over her head and takes a deep breath. The flames don't feel painful at all, she actually enjoys it. In her mind, Marella orders the flames to stop burning but to no avail. The flames just ignore her and even burn brighter and hotter than last time. Marella grits her teeth in frustration as now she knows why everybody says that fire is totally out of hand and uncontrollable.

It can't stop easily.

Marella feels her wrist being pulled to somewhere by goodness knows who. Marella screamed and unleashed all the raging flames she'd been bottling up since the day she'd discovered she was a Pyrokinetic. The person seems to have no reaction at all and just pulls her harder. Marella is fearful. Who was this person? She forces her strained eyes to open wide and look at her surroundings.

The bystanders' eyes are opened wide with confusion and fear, along with Jensi and Macura. They don't seem to notice the firm, dry, scratchy fingers that belong to the unknown someone that is pulling her to somewhere Marella cannot identify. Marella tries to scream again, but her abductor places a hand over her mouth and she gags in disgust.

A sound of a slamming of a door is heard as Marella feels herself being moved ruthlessly and shoved into what feels like to be a chair. The kidnapper pushes a sweet-smelling handkerchief to her nose and mouth. Marella can see a glimpse of what seems to be some kind of symbol that looks like an eye before she gives in to the sedatives and passes out.


	19. Chapter 21

Grady watches anxiously as his wife is being carried away by Councillor Alina's goblin bodyguard. Edaline looks deathly pale and her lips were almost white. She reacted more drastically than Sophie had been before. Grady bites his lip as he hurries forward to catch up with them.

Councillor Emery is awake. He looks confused. Grady had mesmerized him too heavily. Councillor Alina is more concerned for Edaline than him. That is when Grady realizes that Alina, however ruthless, can care deeply for her people too.

"Come on, Emery," she rasps, out of breath. "We need to take her to Elwin." Emery looks doubtful as he is pulled by Grady, his weak body resisting slightly. Grady pulls them forward, grips them into a firm position and pulled out his Imparter. "Show me Elwin."

The elf with the iridescent spectacles appears on the small silver screen. Elwin lights up. "Grady? Why are you calling me?"

"Edaline's in trouble," says Grady desperately. "Come to Havenfield. Now."

"What happen-"

"_Now."_ Repeats Grady darkly as he penetrates Elwin with his stare.

Elwin's smile turns into a grim line as he nods slowly. "Very well then. I'll come as fast as I can."

The cage containing the orange rumple of fur moves excitedly as Grady, an unconscious Edaline, Councillor Emery and Councillor Alina enter the first floor of Havenfield. Alina practically shudders when she sees Iggy. "Your animals frighten me, Lord Ruewen."

Grady bites back a snide remark and swallows the lump in his throat, pretending not to hear her direct insult. Iggy thrashes around in the cage frantically, especially when he sees Edaline. Grady bends down and comforts Iggy. "Shh, Iggy, it's alright. Edaline's not dead."

Iggy seems to shake his furry head as he knocks against his cage, causing the metal cage to plummet towards the smooth floor. Grady catches the cage in time, wincing when the hard metal cut into his flesh.

"Alright, alright! You've made your point." He scoops the cage up and carries it up the staircase, with Alina and Emery carrying Edaline following closely behind.

The doorbell rings and Grady opened it to find Elwin standing there. He leads Elwin to the second floor, where Edaline's limp body is propped up on a bed. Elwin examines her closely, her worried eyes wide with fear and anger. "The ability restrictor again. That darn circlet." He traced the thin metal across Edaline's cold forehead. Emery and Alina look genuinely worried as Alina placed an elegant hand on the circlet and whispers a few soft words. Then she pries off the two ends from each other.

A huge sigh of relief echoes through the room when colour seeps into Edaline's cheeks. Edaline's eyelids flutter open as her pupils dart around, eyes filled with anxiety. "Grady? Where's Sophie? Where's Iggy?"

Grady hugs her gently, and pats her back slowly. "Sophie's not here," he says, "but me and Iggy are. We're here. You're safe."

"Safe," repeats Edaline, pronouncing the word slowly and rolling her tongue to form the single syllable. "I'm safe._ We're_ safe. But Sophie isn't."

"Sophie definitely isn't," confirms Grady sadly. "But we can do something to check on her. Not Spyball" - he quickly adds when he reads the expression on Edaline's face - "but a better way. It has more vulnerabilities than that, but I think it's better. It will cheer Sophie up."

"Cheer Sophie up?" asks Edaline, standing up, her legs wobbling. Elwin rushes to steady her.

"Now, now, nothing of that. You will rest until your good to go."

Edaline glares at Elwin. Elwin doesn't budge.

"Fine." mutters Edaline, settling down on the bed again.

Councillor Alina and Emery take one last look at them and headed towards the exit. Elwin looks at them, then packs up his things quickly. "You should be alright now. Just continue applying that balm for the abrasions caused by that abomination, then you should be quite fine. _Physically. But not mentally."_

Edaline doesn't respond until Elwin slinks out of the door and slams it shut with a big thud. Then she faces Grady with a quizzical but suspicious look on her face. "Now, tell me. What is your plan? That so-called plan that will cheer Sophie up?"

Grady wraps his arms around her and smiles. "We send Iggy to the Black Swan too. An mere imp is much harder to detect than an elf. They'd never know."

They both looked at the mischievous imp, chomping on his orange curls.

Edaline's hold on Grady tightens. "What are 'they'? The Council or...the Neverseen?"

Grady narrows his eyes angrily. "Both."


	20. Chapter 22

The lady who was called Estelle Lundian smoothed back her white-blond hair and watched rather peacefully as the crowd was cheering. Most of them were happy. Some were not. Smiling and scowling faces flashed into her eyes, making her want to wince, but she didn't.

Watching the Project Moonlark - Sophie, as she was called - her smooth blonde hair and that determined smile, Estelle couldn't help but recall tons of happy memories.

_Oh no, no, no. She looks too much like Jolie._

Estelle's eyes started to brim with tears as a memory surfaced up from her mind...

_"Estelle!" A silvery but angry voice rang out through the room. Jolie walked into the room, her turquoise eyes flashing with rage, blond locks cascading wildly around her face, which ___portrayed _ a hurt and betrayed expression. "What did you to to Grady?"  
_

_"Grady?" Estelle snorted, feigning innocence. Jolie ignored her, clearly not falling for the trap. _

_"My dad. My dad! I know you did something very bad to him. Just because he didn't want to join the Black Swan? Y-you-"_

_Estelle shrugged nonchalantly, though guilt was starting to poke at her chest. "He made his own choice. We make our own choice. _ **_I_** _make my own choice."_

_"What about me?" demanded Jolie, stalking up closer to Estelle and looking like she wanted to punch her. "**I'm** allowed to make my own choice, aren't I? If you put it that way?"  
_

_"I-I..." Estelle was at a loss for words, and faltered. Jolie had touched her. "I sent a...note to him. that was all."_

_Jolie was instantly suspicious. "What did the note say?"_

_Well, that was easy. "It said, '**You don't know who you're dealing with'**," Estelle said __ triumphantly. "Slipped it into his coat pocket, yes I did." Jolie's face was a mask of dismay, and Estelle was instantly concerned. "What's wrong?"  
_

_Jolie broke down in tears. "No wonder. He was so troubled." Estelle didn't have any parents. She was envious of those who had. "Look 'ere, you're so lucky. You are in one piece, you have a love, and most importantly, you have a family. A family that loves you. Now look at me. I don't even have anyone to love me. Everybody hates me. Look at the faces they give me. I'm a daughter of a bad match that are dead already. Burned by fire."_

_Jolie's expression darkened. "Fire, Everblaze. Estelle, please...Root Abyss," she muttered softly, and Estelle immediately knew that Jolie was hiding something big._

Estelle wiped her tears slowly and carefully by blinking her eyes, making it look natural. She didn't want anyone to know that she had been crying. Her eyes darted to the five children there. They all looked weary and exhausted. Estelle knew. She'd examined their progress in the Forbidden Cities. And they were still in the Forbidden Cities. That was how the Council had been unable to catch them for decades. But now, the Black Swan had only one purpose.

_Heal Prentice,_ Estelle thought as she tucked the torch back into the lantern and put it back into her coat pocket. Ever since Prentice's mind was broken, everything had started to go downhill.

Estelle led Sophie, Keefe, Biana, Fitz and Dex out of the banquet hall after everyone had eaten. Estelle was a Flasher, a registered one, unfortunately. Children of a bad match usually had reputation. _Bad_ reputation. Now, take the Vackers. They have extremely good reputation. Like all other bad matches and their children, Estelle loathed the Vackers. She was lucky enough to have developed a special ability.

And having two Vackers standing right in front of her wasn't a very good thing to her. She glanced at Dex Dizznee, another son of a bad match. He was looking at Fitz and Biana in a bad way too. Estelle understood his feelings. But goodness gracious, was that _jealousy _that she saw on his face? Estelle didn't even stoop so low to being jealous of Vackers. It usually just led to bad things happening at the wrong time.

That girl, Sophie was whispering something to Keefe. Keefe had a mischievous smile on his face, and he was rubbing his hands excitedly. Estelle picked up half of their 'secret' conversation. Sophie was speaking too loud anyway. Estelle forced her voice to work, then cleared her throat.

Instantly, five pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. Estelle was awestruck by the difference between Sophie's eyes and her friends'. Hers were brown whereas the others were blue. If Estelle didn't know better, she would have thought that Sophie was just a normal human.

"I can hear every single word you say," she began, "so don't try to whisper. No use." Sophie and Keefe's eyes widened, and Estelle celebrated inside. They didn't know that what she had said was actually all lies. Sure, she could pick up secretly whispered conversations, but that was one of her weak points. Only snippets of them were heard to Estelle. A touch of guilt leaked into her heart.

"Woah," Keefe whispered. "She's good."

"I am, right?" laughed Estelle, infusing her words with belief and as much truth and confidence she could muster. "My hearing is good."

Keefe turned to her with a confused expression. "Oh no, you must be mistaken. I said that you're really good at telling lies. I could only detect a teeny-litte bit of guilt inside you. Now" - his face turned into a mask of admiration - "you're my role-model."

Fitz clapped a hand over his mouth, obviously trying to suppress his laughter. Estelle cursed silently under her breath. She had forgotten that Keefe was an Empath, and he clearly had his father's skill.

"So, I guess you five want a little private time to cha- discuss."

"Yes." agreed Biana, curling her pretty chocolate brown locks absently. Hurt appeared in her eyes when Estelle flinched and gave her a slight glare. And Estelle did not feel guilty at all. She caught Dex looking approvingly and shook her head. "You can enter this room for thirty minutes, then head off to training, I'll give you directions later. Rest assured, we won't eavesdrop on your conversation. Well, the adults at least. You can't be too sure about Sora and Soreas."

"Did I just hear my name?" asked Soreas as he appeared out of nowhere with Sora.

Estelle sighed. "_Lady Lundian."_

Soreas scowled. "Fine, _Lady Lundian._ Satisfied?"

"Yes. Very. Now head off to training. You are going to be late. Madlen is going to scream at you."

"He won't," corrected Sora. "Don't worry, Estelle. We can handle him."

"Hey, why does _she _get to call you by your first name?" Soreas complained.

"'Cause I'm more awesome. I can handle _you_ too, if you like," retorted Sora. Then they walked away, bickering with each other.

Dex glared over at them. "Heks." he muttered. Estelle pretended to ignore him as she leaned against the wall, and said, "Faster. You don't have much time until the real thing starts." After she'd shooed them in, Estelle closed the door and headed towards her office to prepare for training Soreas and Sora in one hour's time.

But she had an even more important thing to do.

Estelle walked into her office and closed the door firmly behind her. at a snap of her fingers, the room was instantly flooded with bright light. Everything was arranged neatly as she sat down on a cushioned couch.

Estelle took out some old parchments tightly rolled up from the third row of drawers at her left and unrolled them slowly, staring at the sign of the swan at the top. Then she moved down and started to decipher the runes.


	21. Chapter 23

**Sorry I haven't updated for so long. Exams have been round the corner. 还有， 邦尼， 你为什么要一直赶我去写这个呢？ Patience is the key to success! **

"So?" asked Dex, crossing his arms, glaring at Sophie. "What do you make of...what's her name again?"

"Estelle Lundian?" asked Keefe, cringing when Dex nodded. "Uh, I dunno. But she kinda creeps me out. I mean, she looks at Fitz and Biana like they're venomous!"

Dex sighed. "That _was _my point! I'd never met anyone that dislikes the Vackers before, except for my family-"

"You're forgetting Tiergan," interrupted Sophie, before Fitz or Biana could argue. "Uh, and Stina, too. Probably."

"_Most _probably," Keefe smirked at Sophie, receiving a death glare in return. He did not look fazed at all.

"Let me make my point first. Well, except for them, everyone, and I _do _mean _everyone,_ absolutely _adores_ the Vackers. I mean, have you ever seen anyone except for a certain few shooting disdainful looks at them?"

"Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?" Fitz asked suspiciously.

Dex gave him a look, then continued, "And now, I meet this lady called Estelle...Whatever. Looks like, yay! I have another Vacker hater."

Biana held out her hand, almost jabbing Dex's face. Dex scowled deeply. "What? What is it?"

"The bullets. The melder shots. Give them back to me." Biana's voice was as hard and cold as steel, something that Sophie didn't recognize as her loyal and warm friend.

Dex's scowl deepened further, although inside Sophie could see that he was actually taunting Biana, and was quite enjoying it. "Why do you need them? You have no use for them, anyway. I, instead, can use them to create something useful."

Sophie pushed them aside, irritated. "Enough. Four-year olds. Here we are trying to discuss about important things that can destroy the world and here I am, dealing with four-year olds."

Both Biana and Dex frowned, but after exchanging a few glares to each other, all they muttered was, "Fine."

Sophie relaxed her shoulders. "Thank you."

"Nice one, Foster!" Keefe cracked up. Sophie frowned at him.

"I-I'm serious, Keefe," Sophie tried to keep the quiver out of her voice as she explained with full detail about what Mr Forkle had said, and the symbol on the dining room door that was linked to her memory about the boy who disappeared.

"So this concerns humans?" asked Fitz, his forehead etched with worry. "This is bad. Even the Council couldn't do anything about that; nobody in the Lost Cities care about humans."

"Of course, I forgot about your deep friendship with the dear _Council."_ There was obvious hatred in Dex's voice when he snorted.

"Dex!" Sophie said sharply, and Dex shut up immediately. "And Fitz, obviously _I_ care." Her tone softened at the last word. "Even if all the other elves don't care. At all."

She might've been the only person-no-_elf_ that thought this way, but that didn't matter. Even if the Black Swan did not have the same thinking as their own creation, she didn't care. Even if Sophie was in her own small rebellion. Like the Neverseen.

The word sent eerie chills down her spine.

Then, Sophie remembered something. "Biana half-vanished."

Keefe drew in a breath. "No way! That is _awesome!"_

"_Not!"_ Biana and Sophie both shot back at him in unison. "You don't understand, Keefe," said Biana, almost near to tears.

"Woah, why are you crying? I didn't do anything!"

"Obviously she thought you did," replied Fitz, glaring at Keefe.

Keefe put his hands in mock surrender. "I give up."

Biana blinked back her tears, then bent down and pulled up a portion of her long black pants.

The space between her boot and the rolled-up pants was nothing. Thin air. Sophie, Dex, Keefe and Fitz both gasped at the same time.

"It was the result of us snooping at night," Sophie explained slowly. "After that, Biana was already like that. We both thought that she'd already gotten the hang of Vanishing completely."

"And she did," Fitz cut in, putting an arm over Biana's shaking shoulders. "You can't deny that there's something not right about this, too. I personally watched her back in Everglen" - his voice hitched a little - "and she had gotten the hang of Vanishing. Every time."

Biana sniffed, and managed to say, "Tell them what we heard."

Sophie reached into her cape and pulled out a piece of crumpled paper where she'd scribbled down the words that she had heard that she assumed was from Mr Forkle and Soreas. Then a thought struck her like a lightning bolt and her veins turned to ice.

She could still remember Mr Forkle telling Sora particularly _not_ to let them snoop about that night. And Sora had agreed heartily.

Could it be possible that, while Sophie and Biana had been spying on Mr Forkle and Soreas, then Sora had been spying on _them_ at the same time? It was actually quite possible, Sophie thought. Sora was probably heavily trained in the Black Swan's ways of hiding, and knew how to spy on them without being detected in the slightest bit at all. And when they'd first met Soreas and Sora, Sora had remained hidden and unknown until Soreas revealed her hiding place.

"Sophie?" Fitz looked worried, shaking her shoulders gently but firmly. "Are you okay?"

Sophie blinked and nodded quickly. "Oh yes, I am."

"She's lying, Fitz." Keefe pointed out most unhelpfully. Sophie cursed under her breath.

"What is that I hear you muttering, Foster?" he teased.

"Uh, so you are actually _lying_ to us?" Dex asked with a trace of hurt in his voice. "What do you need to hide about? I thought we were your friends?"

Sophie drew in a shaky breath and said, "I...I just don't want you worrying over me."

Biana stepped forward and pulled Sophie in a tight embrace. "Oh, Sophie." she murmured softly, "It's going to be alright. I understand."

"Uh, like we don't understand too."

"I wasn't talking to you, Keefe."

Sophie showed the paper to the boys. "Look, it's just scrambled words that I heard. And Keefe?"

"At your service, Foster. Nah, just kidding."

"Can you detect all the emotions in the room right now? Like, _all?"_

"All? What do you mean by all, Foster?"

"Like, any other feelings and emotions that aren't from us."

A silence spread over the room as Keefe closed his eyes, concentrating. "Nah, Foster. I feel nothing unusual."

Sophie released the breath she'd been holding. "Good. I was suspecting that somebody's spying on us."

The room grew deadly silent again, and an unnerving feeling in Sophie's gut grew, making her clutch her chest in fright.

"Wow, that is some fear." Keefe said, his voice strained. Sophie panicked.

"Oh, sorry-"

"No need to apologize. It's just...nice to know that the Mysterious Miss F. cares."

Just then, the door creaked open, revealing a calm and smiling Sora. "Your time's over. Time for training!"

"I have a feeling that it's not gonna be pretty." Keefe muttered. Sora's smile grew wider and wider until it actually did creep Sophie out a little.

"Ah, you just have to be used to it."


	22. Chapter 24

Sophie stood up and glared at Sora, eyes blazing. Sora didn't flinch at all, and Sophie knew that she'd been trained in acting and lying convincingly too.

_I really need to learn this trick to lie to an Empath._

A confused expression flashed across Sora's face. Fitz, Dex, Keefe and Biana fell silent as a smile spread over Sora's face. "I knew you would confront me. Your expression shows everything,"

Sophie stepped back fearfully, shocked. How could Sora be so skillful in everything? From hiding in the shadows without anyone suspecting; to reading the expression on one's face and knowing what one would do, she was obviously a very helpful ally, but also a very powerful and threatening enemy if Sora chose to betray the Black Swan.

_Though, she wouldn't do that though..._

But then, how did Sophie know? Sora could be a double agent for the Black Swan and the Neverseen and no one would ever know that the helpful but skillful Sora Heks, descendant of Silla Heks, had been nothing to the Black Swan. If that was true, that meant that the Black Swan had been under a delusion for a very long time.

But she didn't dare to accuse Sora or tell anyone. For all Sophie knew, Sora could just be following the orders of the Black Swan secretly, not some undercover for the Neverseen. If she was really that, then wouldn't this Black Swan base be infiltrated already?

Sophie recovered from her shock and quickly said, "Confront you? What would I confront you for?" Sophie had not been trained in the art of delusion, but she did her best and forced herself to look into Sora's dark maroon eyes. Looking at them closely for the first time, Sophie noticed that Sora's eyes were darker and deeper than she'd realized, like they were hiding a dark secret that was too dangerous to tell.

Sora looked at her, never looking away even once, and said slowly, "You think I'm hiding something."

Sophie had to stop herself from clapping both of her hands over her agape mouth.

_How did she do that? She's not even a Telepath. Or an Empath._

But Sophie knew she was neither. And when she closed her mouth firmly, Sora looked almost sorry. _Almost._ How could she be so kind at one time, then cold at another time?

Sophie knew she and her friends were late for their training, and she was worried. But not as much as what she was asking herself mentally.

_I can't figure anything out by filling my mind with doubts - the only way is to-_

She stopped abruptly and shivered. Did she dare to do it?

Her friends were looking at her strangely. Especially Fitz and Keefe.

_What are you trying to do?_ Fitz transmitted to her.

Sophie jumped. _Nah, I'm not trying to do anything-_

_Don't lie. I know that face when you're up to something._"Yeah, come on, Foster. We all know you well enough to know that you're planning something weird. And dangerous." Keefe added.

Biana and Dex looked at her questioningly. Sophie sighed. The only person she trusted was Fitz.

_I'm not so sure about what __**Sora**__ is up to. _Sophie transmitted back to Fitz.

Keefe raised his eyebrows. "Now, no telepathic conversations when I'm around-"

"You better not be thinking about that." Fitz warned. The rest of her friends looked confused. Even Sora. Sophie took a deep breath and smiled. Well, Sora _wasn't_ a Telepath, so she definitely couldn't know what she was trying to do.

"Uh, oh yes, I'm thinking about that," she added as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Sophie had did it once to the ogre king, and she didn't want to even think about that. But she couldn't resist the growing temptation, and opened her mind to Sora's penetrable one.

Sophie was reading Sora's mind. Illegally.


	23. Chapter 25

The blazing inferno in front of Sophie made her bleary-eyed, coughing wildly, hacking furiously. When she finally opened her eyes again, the fire was still there, blazing and flickering, traveling across the dark yet light space of Sora's mind.

_Everblaze._

It was heading right towards Sophie. Sophie panicked and pushed further into Sora's mind, avoiding the tongues of the hungry flames and suddenly found herself in a smoke-free place with cool fresh night air.

Sophie stumbled and cried out in pain as her knee bumped into a rough rocky surface. Blood flowed out from the wound. Sophie gritted her teeth and stood up slowly, wincing as the pain in her left knee stabbed her flesh cruelly. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the night sky, filled with glimmering, glittering stars, forming an amazing, spectacular galaxy, so bright that it shone down onto Sophie's soot-covered face, and suddenly she heard the sound of waves near her.

Sophie walked to the edge of the rocky cliff and peered down carefully, fear ripping her lungs. A stretch of beach sand and shimmering, glowing, dark blue waves could be seen. She was at Siren Rock.

A flood of memories came rushing back to her as she watched two figures in heavy, long capes and thick clothing and boots settled down onto the smooth sand. The first figure took out a bottle from a sachet, but soon the bottle slipped out of the figure's hands and plopped down onto the sand, leaving an indent. Sophie blinked back tears when she realized that that figure was _her._ Somehow, Sophie was watching her past in Sora's mind.

Her mind flashed back to the Everblaze in Sora's mind when Sophie had first entered it. So that had been her memories too? It now made sense. Sora _was_ part of the Black Swan; she could've been assigned to this sort of weird job.

But it wasn't what she was looking for. Sophie turned her back on the two figures unfeelingly and delved further in Sora's mind. Then she saw a sight that made her stand rooted to the ground, breathless and unable to move.

Suddenly, she was Sora, watching secretly and hiding in a corner, as she saw Sophie jerk back from Fintan's mind. Oralie and Sophie were too shocked to move, and Fitz pulled them away in a hurry, screaming. The words rang into her ears as Fitz screamed, "NO!" The shining purple jewels were melted, and the liquid started to flow.

She knew he was searching for his father, Alden. She observed that Sophie pulled him back, warning him that Everblaze was unstoppable.

Sora directed her eyes back to another group surrounded in wilder, brighter flames. There were the other Councillors, Alden and Tiergan. and a few more elves. She watched as Tiergan calmly pulled out his leaping crystal and set the facets to a certain position and directed them into the light. But Councillor Kenric was reluctant to go. His eyes kept wandering off to Fintan, who was still sitting there, a wicked smile on his face.

Then Sora suddenly knew what he was planning to do. She clamped her hands over her mouth in horror, but there was nothing she could do. The Everblaze was starting to spread in her direction already, and if she didn't escape _now, she_ would be burned to nothing. So Sora held her cobalt blue crystal to the light, and tears welled up in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks when she saw Kenric and Fintan being burned into nothingness by the Everblaze just before she vanished from Oblivmyre.

And suddenly she was Sophie again. Sophie blinked her eyes.

_No no no no no no no no no no._

Kenric had died. Because of her. Sophie fueled her rage, fear and sadness to drown away the guilt.

She would focus on rage.

Prentice needed her. _Everyone_ needed her.

Sophie shook her head. She wasn't here to dredge up memories, especially sad ones. Taking a deep breath, she transmitted the words into the many paths of Sora's mind.

_Secret. Secret. Secret._

The glinting path of light traced its way through Sora's mind. Sophie grabbed hold of it and followed it.

Sora's mind was surprisingly, more complicated than Fitz's. It was very strange, but she was part of the Black Swan, what should she expect?

Sophie arrived at a small corner of the mind. It was darker, and more deep. Like the feeling in Sora's dark maroon eyes. Pictures came rushing through. Sophie took a step closer, eager to find the mysterious secret Sora had been hiding.

* * *

Suddenly, a invisible force pulled her out of this place, and Sophie's eyes had just enough time to adjust to the different shades of lights before she was finally yanked out of Sora's mind.

"What were you thinking?" demanded a familiar face as Sophie blinked and winced at the glaring bright light.

When her eyes finally adjusted, she recognized Mr Forkle along with Estelle. They both looked deadly serious as they glared at Sophie. Sophie tried not to cringe.

"What was I thinking?" Sophie mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. Then she gasped when a whole rush of memories came crashing into her mind.

"Oh no," she muttered as she rubbed her head. She'd read Sora's mind without her permission, and nothing, _nothing_ had came out of it. What was she going to do now?

"Yes, what are you going to do now?" Mr Forkle said. "I understand why you wanted to read Sorajin's mind, no problem. But even the rules of telepathy are applied here: _Never read an elf's mind without permission._ Get it?"

"Fine, fine." Sophie muttered as she closed her eyes and rolled them. When she opened them, she saw that Estelle was looking at her.

"It isn't a joke, Sophie," she said sadly but firmly as she stared at Sophie menacingly. "How would you like it if someone read _your_ mind instead of the other way round?"

Sophie shuddered. "Creepy."

Estelle nodded. "Precisely. Creepy. Put yourself in other people's shoes and try to understand them .I know you're not bad at heart, but you're a little ignorant."

The word felt like a slap to Sophie's cheek.

_Ignorant._

She could still remember Brant saying the word when they'd first met.

_"No, Miss Foster. You may be ignorant, but you are definitely not innocent."_

And he was right. Sophie was ignorant. Not innocent. And Sophie thought she was not ignorant anymore.

She gritted her teeth angrily as she realized that she _was_ still ignorant.

Sophie hung her head, filled with remorse. "I'm sorry." she mumbled.

Estelle examined her for a few seconds, then nodded her head, and stood up.

"Come," she said, gesturing Sophie to stand up too, "you're coming with me for your first training session."

"She's not going to like it, Lundian." Mr Forkle informed her. Estelle glared at him.

"Of course she isn't." she said as she led Sophie out of the boring room.


	24. Chapter 26

**Well, I guess I'm back! I 3 writing, and hope y'all like my story:)  
**

_Where am I? _

That was Marella's very first thought when she woke up in a dark, creepy place with warm and humid air. Marella inhaled, coughing and hacking when the first breath of fresh air hit her sedative-damaged lungs. Her chest heaved and her eyes watered. She had no idea where she was, but this surely wasn't anywhere in the Lost Cities.

A sour thought hit her. If she wasn't in the Lost Cities, then she must be in the _Forbidden Cities._

Marella panicked, and tried to get up, her rib muscles straining. But the moment she lifted herself an inch up, her body touched rough fabrics, cutting into her flesh and causing her skin to bleed profusely. She forced her blurry eyesight to work and directed her sore eyes to her wrists, her feet, and her waist.

Thick black bonds roughly knotted around her body pulled her down, restraining her to the hard wooden board that she was lying uncomfortably on.

_She was a hostage._

Like Sophie. What was Marella supposed to do? She perked her ears up for any sound movement, but detected nothing. Then she braced herself.

_Can't believe I'm doing this, but I have to._

Marella mustered her courage, calling the heat within her, gathering it into a small little ball, until it grew into a fireball, twisting and turning furiously with fury and fear. Marella watched it for a while, and opened her eyes wide open and pushed the fireball hard, forcing it to break into small little flickering, hungry flames. Not knowing what she was doing, Marella muttered a word and focused her narrowed eyes at the pitch-black sky, imagining the heat of the Sun burning through her veins and joining her own fire to make a new combination.

It was like the sky crackled with sparkling, pulsing energy as Marella howled. Unable to stand the rising temperature inside her any longer, she thrust the flames out of her body.

Suddenly, bright light could be seen, and the most intense burning Marella had ever experienced - well, she was experiencing it now. Marella screamed in agony as she saw the fire burn the bonds restraining her.

But the were burning her too. Marella twisted out of the bonds, finally free, and rolled to the ground, still feeling the heat burning at her wrists and feet. She saw the neon-yellow flames on her body and gritted her teeth, unpinning her stupid Foxfire cape and hurling it to the ground, watching the fire devour the last of her cape.

_Well, so long, cape. I never really liked you, anyway._

Next were her feet. If she didn't react fast enough, her skin would be burning too. Marella pulled off her shoes and was left with her own two bare feet. Not bearing to watch the hungry, powerful flames swallow up her belongings, she ran for her life before she was next.

* * *

Marella didn't know how long she had ran. She could only remember the strain on her exhausted feet as her bare feet pounded on the rough, rocky floor, bruising them heavily. But she didn't stop. Not until she could smell completely smoke-free air.

She set her tired body against a wall in an alley. The landscape had changed drastically as she had run, from a pitch black surrounding to ridiculously high buildings that were nothing like the grand ones in the Lost Cities - unless you count Lord Cassius's Candleshade - to vintage-looking, old shredded off shophouses, except for a medium-high building that had the castle design with a clocktower situated right behind it.

Gazing at the towering clocktower just ahead of her, Marella relaxed her shoulders and rested. A gust of hot, sandy air blew across, dirtying her Foxfire uniform.

It was already sunrise. The brilliant golden-orange rays shone on the concrete floor as Marella slowly pushed herself up, her legs wobbling. She grasped the wall for support and looked down at her uniform. It was torn and shredded. She couldn't go around wearing this.

_Any cloth here?_

Marella peered around the corner of the alley. There was a secluded opening in the alley, with some vague signs. She squinted at them. Nope, Marella couldn't decipher anything written on there. She saw what seemed to be left of a glass door stuck on the edges of the opening, with more empty space inside. Her curiosity piqued, Marella crept across to the door, stuck her fingers into the narrow crack, and pushed the door open.

The room was a mess, with thick and thin fabrics tossed all around and the furniture all knocked down. Marella tiptoed across the dark room, like there was a secret hidden inside this room and she didn't want to shake the possibility off.

She picked up a midnight blue shawl and wrapped it around her waist, covering the holes in her outfit. Marella glared at the darkness of the room. It wouldn't work anyway if she snapped her fingers to switch on the light back in the Lost Cities. But she snapped her fingers sharply anyway and surprisingly, bright light flooded the room instantly. Weird.

Marella peered around the now lit-up room, her eyes darting around nervously. Then her eyes fell on the counter inches away from her. Marella walked casually over to it and sat down on the sleek black chair, liking the modern feel. She happened to glance at the surface of the counter. It was gleaming, shining marble, but that wasn't what Marella was attracted to.

There were a lot of interesting things on the counter. First, there was a Prattles' pin, shaped into the figure of a moonlark, glinting in the light. Marella's fingers closed around it, her excitement rising in her. She collected Prattles' pins and she was an avid collector; nothing could stop her from collecting them. Secondly, there was another pin, except that it was a crest - most probably a elvin family crest, she thought as she turned the pin around and around, examining it with curiosity. It potrayed a red triangle crisscrossed by two gray lines set against a background of blue. Marella traced the rough and smooth carved outlines. She wanted to put it down, but she had a feeling that that pin was important, too.

So, she slipped the two pins into her pocket, feeling very pleased with herself. But then she looked at the last final object slipped on the counter, with a note attached. Her blood ran cold.

_A patch of black fabric, with an eye sewn on it._

She had seen the same symbol on the elf that had kidnapped her - he was wearing it on his sleeve. Was she supposed to do that too? No, not really. They were the ones who'd kidnapped her, and for goodness knows what reason. Except for the fact that she was a Pyrokinetic, nothing special about her. A sob escaped through her lips, but she managed to bite her lip and stop the tears from flowing out. Marella reached out for the note with shaky hands and read the elvin runes slowly and carefully:

_Special girl, listen carefully,_

_You just summoned Everblaze. Do you know how dangerous is that for an amateur like you? _

_So, if you want to control that sheer and wonderful power in you, you listen to us. I have to admit, you've got potential - loads of it. But you still need training and control if you want to hide your ability from the Council.  
_

_Come, join us. The Council won't find you, I assure you. You may have heard of us - other than the Black Swan group, we are the other organization - the one that strives for the better of the world - not like the Black Swan. So, you will be protected here. Go through the passageway behind and you'll be having a wonderful life from then.~~  
_

_P.S. 7 () will do it._

Marella looked behind her. She pushed the wall, searching for any traces of secret passageways. Nothing. Then she tried clapping her hands seven times like the note had instructed her to do so.

A secret panel slid open silently. Marella stared at it, then her mind flashed back to her family.

Would they miss her?

Of course.

But she still had to do it. She wanted to find out what was this secret group - and what was the link between it and the mysterious Black Swan group. The Council told them that the Black Swan was the rebellion. But now? She wasn't so sure.

And they had offered to train her to control her powers. Nobody else could do that.

So, taking one last look behind her, Marella took a deep breath and crawled inside the dark passageway.


	25. Chapter 27

**Hey, guys! For five straight days it's been nothing but exams, and I had to give up my time to study. But now I'm back!**

Sophie hesitated for a fraction of a second, then trotted behind Estelle, walking into a big, empty open space with only folded tables and chairs piled up at the sides of the room. When Sophie looked up, the ceiling was high and round like a dome.

Estelle turned her head round and looked at her. Sophie tried not to wince - the look Estelle gave her was a penetrating stare - the kind that adults give to children when they've done something wrong. Just like her human mother, Emma. Sophie felt a pang of loneliness that she tried very hard to ignore.

"I decided that besides the obvious fact that you are only trouble," Estelle began, her stare turning into a small smile, "you _have_ something useful inside you. I just found out, by the way." She stooped down to grab a few chairs and tables out of the huge stack of them. Sophie ran over to help her.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Estelle's face looked troubled, scrunched up, like she was trying to figure her question out, "oh. I see. Take for example, what you did just now. You read Sora's mind. And I have to inform you of this - even if she's not a Telepaths - no offense, of course, to Mr Forkle and you and all the other Telepaths, Telepaths are seriously overrated - ahem, where was I? Yes. Even if Sora Heks is not a Telepath, her mind is quite...unique. So unique that Telepaths will mistake her mind as broken or lost."

Sophie perked up, her curiosity piqued. "What - even me? How? Why?" Her voice was so loud that it echoed across the room, bouncing off the rounded walls.

Estelle smiled, as she and Sophie arranged a table and two chairs in the very center of the vast room. "Someone trained her, of course. Someone wise and old, but dead now. Her grandmother. Silla Heks, I recall, was our best animal trainer - not that we _train_ animals, no, not forcing them to give up their freedom. This - you have to realise - Sophie - this is a very big base of ours. So big that it even goes underground and downtown. So we practically can have anything we want to be here - even our own personal Sanctuary like the one in Himalayas. Our Sanctuary is the same as the Coucil's one - only that we nurture and train animals throughout their life, preparing them for any emergencies. We have a lot of allies that way. Of course, not only animals, but there are some people in the Lost Cities that sort of work 'undercover' for us-"

"Um, how is Sora's mind unique?"

Estelle blinked. "Oh. Right. Back to Silla. She was the best animal trainer. And when Soreas and Sorajin were born, Silla of course wanted to take them in to the Black Swan. But Krebbe - their father - wouldn't let Silla. He demanded that his children should not be put in danger. Their mother - Calsa - of course stood on Krebbe's side. But Silla wasn't giving up - she was a very determined person, you see. She sensed potential in those two children. She had no choice but to kidnap the two children - to this place in Firenze.

"Calsa was devastated - but those two couldn't do anything about it. Silla trained them well, yes she did, Sora and Soreas, I mean - side by side with the mystical creatures in the Sanctuary - since Silla was the Black Swan's animal trainer. But Sora - for some reason - reacted differently to the animals in the Sanctuary - unlike Soreas - who was scared out of his wits. She was the only one in the Black Swan besides Silla who dared to _touch_ them. And mind you, the animals that we keep here are not the sparkly haughty alicorns you see in the other Sanctuary-"

"Hey!" Sophie said indignantly, plopping down on the hard plastic chair. Estelle sat down too, quietly.

"But the sad thing is, one of those aggressive things went too far, and bit her head _hard_ when she was petting it, unaware of the danger it posed. And that time, she was only five." Estelle's voice dropped to a whisper. "Her head suffered only some minor injuries - thank goodness for that - but she had brain damage. She could still think properly, function properly, but she had no idea what Kerlof had seen inside her mind when he had probed it out of curiosity."

Sophie looked away, her mind racing with a million thoughts and possibilities.

Everblaze in Sora's mind. A exact copy of her own memories - which should had been in _Sophie's_ mind.

"She was spying on me during the mind healing on Fintan." Sophie whispered, replaying what she had saw in Sora's mind.

Estelle ignored her question. "And he found out that somehow, Sora could function more...smoothly. Yet weirdly. She could thwart her mind like a Telepath - but she couldn't read anyone's mind. And so, we based that theory on our project, twisting, turning and tweaking on Alicorn DNA - don't ask me why alicorn - and we finally created you." Her eyes landed on a shaking Sophie. "Stop trembling, my dear. It's unnerving."

So basically, her own existence had been inspired by that mysterious girl? The one that creeped her out? Okay, she was nice when Sophie first met her. She was probably still the same. Sophie had just been producing wild theories and ideas about Sora. Though she couldn't deny the fact that something was still wrong about her that Sophie didn't know about.

However, Sophie knew she was asking too much prying questions at a time. She could collect the rest of the jigsaw puzzles and fit them together later.

"I'm ready." she told Estelle. Estelle leaned back and tapped her fingers on the table in a fast rhythm.

"Okay," she sighed, "now I'm supposed to teach you self-defense. How can I teach _suldreen_ about self-defense? Makes. No. Sense. But whatever!" she exhaled a deep breath, and opened her mouth to speak again.

"To teach self-defense, you don't need a table and chair. These are for later use. Okay, maybe we need it." She stood up, and beckoned Sophie to stand up too, which Sophie obeyed.

They stood about three-quarters a metre away, facing each other. Estelle's expression turned serious, her eyes narrowing. Sophie was suddenly fearful of what she could do.

"First-" she began, "you must know how to pack a punch." She looked at Sophie. "Do you know how to punch?"

The way she said it made Sophie want to laugh, but she restrained from doing so as she recalled the powerful punch to Gethen's face in Mount Everest. "Yeah, but I had a cuff around my wrist to help me - one of Dex's inventions. Wait - I put it on my wrist- Where is it? I remembered clearly I wore it!" She panicked.

Estelle put a calming yet strong hand on her shoulder. "Fitz took it. When you were unconscious, they had to fight the Neverseen. And they needed a weapon - besides a melder. Those things are overrated."

This woman really seemed to hate "overrated" stuff.

"Get ready," Estelle warned. Sophie looked up.

Suddenly, Estelle disappeared. Sophie looked around frantically. Where was she? She didn't see her until she reappeared behind her and pummelled her to the ground. Sophie fell, her breath knocked out. But she managed to support her from the ground with her two hands, and sprang back up and moved her fist towards Estelle, building up her strength.

Estelle smirked, and she vanished again, leaving Sophie's fist to connect with empty air. She whirled around, opening her ears wider.

A slight whooshing sound in the air behind her, so soft that she barely heard it. But she did. Just as Estelle appeared, her hands raised, Sophie tackled her to the cemented ground and they went rolling. But Estelle was not fazed. She made a cartwheel, shooting up, landing on the ground as that one movement sent Sophie sliding over across the ground. The friction made her skin hot and prickly, but she ignored it and picked herself up.

Estelle raised her eyebrows. "Not bad for a first-timer. You certainly did better that Soreas when he had his first time."

Sophie allowed the praise to spread over her body, warming up and melting away her fear.

Estelle smiled. "Let's have another round."

* * *

By the end of the second round of self-defense, Sophie was tired and beat - yet satisfied, despite the fact that Estelle had triumphed. She had made progress and her body felt more healthier and livelier. She wanted to see what her second session of training had in store for her - but Estelle said that her training session wasn't over yet - she still had something she wanted to show Sophie.

"Come with me." she said as she headed over to the other end of the room. Sophie didn't notice that there was another door, a smaller one when she had entered the room for the first time. She followed the Black Swan member into the door and headed into a small, narrow downwards corridor with flickering blue fire in the torches aligning the rocky walls. Below them were endless steps going downwards. A spiral staircase. Although it wasn't exactly the same, the stairs reminded Sophie of the endless stairs going down to the center of the earth in Exile. Sophie shuddered, but took the first step down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

It felt like an eternity until they stepped down and Estelle announced that they had arrived at their destination. Sophie's legs felt like jelly, her muscles aching badly. The air had become more damp and cold, and Sophie could hear the sound of roaring water.

Estelle tugged on a mould-infested wooden door and pulled it open with much force. The first crack between the outside and the door, Sophie could feel water splashing on her face. _Wild_ water.

It was not comforting at all. Fear began to creep into Sophie's mind again, her heart palpitating furiously as she followed Estelle out of the door into the outside world.

Instantly, Sophie could hear roaring water and see it too. It was like a sea, when storms occurred. Estelle turned and looked at her, then held out a hand.

Sophie took hers with a shaky one of hers. She was absolutely terrified with this place.

"Welcome," said Estelle, "to Root Abyss."


	26. Chapter 28

It is not long before Edaline slips out of bed quietly when she sees Grady exit the room. She walks down the polished wood stairs to where Iggy is.

She gazes at the small, orange ball of curls and smiles to herself when she remembers the time when she and Sophie had saved Iggy's life. She remembers Sophie squeezing her hand and she herself stiffening at her touch. It had just been too...much. Edaline still has that stubborn memory etched into her mind, unable to slip out of her mind no matter how many times she tries to forget. It _is _about Jolie, but Edaline isn't eager to replay the scene again.

Edaline scoops the small cage up and carries it up again. She sinks down onto the bed and stares at Iggy, trying to think of a good way to use the advantages that Iggy brought her. Then she makes up her mind, skids over to the other room opposite - Grady's office to be exact.

She pushes her fingers into the narrow gap of the smooth wooden door, and opens it, making her way slowly inside. Grady must be downstairs in the bedroom resting. She does not really like the idea of snooping in her own husband's office, but it has to suffice.

The room is dusty and dirty. Old and tattered scrolls took up one side of the wall. Two wide bookshelves crammed with thick rune dictionaries and encyclopedias took up two.

Edaline makes her way to the bookshelves first. She scans the faded titles of each one first before deciding on one that read:_ The History and Secrets of the Lost Cities._

Then she looks at the thousands, millions of scrolls piled up on quarter of a floor and sighs.

She knocks on the door downstairs and goes in without waiting for an answer. As she has expected, Grady is lying on the canopy bed in the middle of the bed, obviously tired after a long day.

"Who is it?" Grady asks wearily with a slightly muffled voice. Edaline frowns.

"It's me, Eda. who else would it be?"

"Oh."

There is a long silence that stretches for what seems to be an eternity.

"Mind if your office get cleaned up? I'll settle that, then you'll do the 'using Iggy to contact Sophie' thing. Is that alright?"

Grady's eyes fly wide open; he sits up straight. "Okay. I've been planning to do that for a while already."

Edaline hides the thick book behind her back quickly. "Sure! Then it's settled." Then she looks outside at the dinosaur enclosed area when she hears a enraged, roaring noise. "Verdi? It's not time for her lunch yet." She frowns in confusion.

Before Grady can react, a gnome rushes inside. "Lord Ruewen and Lady Ruewen, I'm afraid the tyrannosaurus is making quite a fuss."

Grady jumps out of the bed, a worried expression on his face. "What? What happened?"

"There's _something, something_ that has landed on the pastures. Even we couldn't make out what sort of creature it is. But it's extremely aggressive, since it and the tyrannosaurus are having a heated fight" - more roaring noises and a huge CRASH - "right now."

Edaline's heart is palpitating furiously, her lungs ripped with fear. Even Grady who usually doesn't get too concerned about this kind of business, is looking quite worried now.

They race out of the Havenfield house -

\- and skid to a stop and look up to see a scaly, muscular, monstrous face, rage and fury portrayed on it.

"I have a feeling that this is going to be the hardest creature we're going to tame so far, Grady." Edaline whispers.

The creature snarls in reply, and stomps one of its gigantic feet.


	27. Chapter 29

"Root Abyss," Sophie said. It felt wrong, when it was said out loud. It sounded secretive and mysterious, like it had a million dark secrets hidden inside.

The rushing water came from a big wide chasm that was held up by several heavy, clunky, metallic chains that were rusty and worn out, but they still looked extremely strong and ominous-looking. It was like the _sea_ was in the chasm, roaring and crashing around with big towering waves that threatened Sophie's life.

"Yes, Root Abyss," said Estelle, looking at the chasm. She had to raise her voice for Sophie to hear her. "It's the most dangerous place in this base. When you and your companions were stuck in that secret passageway that led you to us, there were two paths you had to choose from, am I right?"

Sophie nodded.

"One led you to us, and one led you to the Neverseen. It was lucky, very lucky that you managed to choose the right pathway. Yes, you might have been tricked easily, by the sinister darkness of the Black Swan's passageway, and the sheer brightness of the Neverseen's. The Root Abyss is the connecting link between the two major bases of the Black Swan and the Neverseen. But don't worry, because the connection between us and them" - she pointed to the water - "is blocked by this raging whirlpool of water. It's not seawater, thank goodness, that would have been worse, but it's just normal water that our alchemists made to make it act like the _sea_, you see. And so, there's very little chance for the Neverseen to get through here, nor we to go to their base."

Sophie could see a big hole in this concept of the Root Abyss already. And she pointed it out. "But, there surely are elves who have the ability to control water. And remember, the Neverseen managed to follow me and Keefe to the deserted island, despite the fact that we used the path of the unmapped stars to light leap to places that couldn't be reached by normal light-leaping. What do you have to say to that?"

Estelle smiled. "No, Sophie Foster, you do not understand the great power of the Root Abyss. Yes, Aquakinetics have power over water, but that power is limited. They can only _manipulate_ water, not_ control_ water. And as for _that_, light leaping the concept is much more complicated than the Root Abyss's. Why waste our time worrying about Elementine - which is very dangerous - when there are much simpler solutions such as making great use of the elements to help us?

"The Black Swan is not like the average elves ruled by the Council, Sophie. They overlook the power of the elements. We do not. They look down on mediocre elves. We do not. They banished humans from their land. We did not."

"Wait, you're telling me that_ there are humans here?" _Sophie practically screamed.

Estelle nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "They're not our servants though. You understand. There are only four of them, and you'll hardly see them. They're very clever, much more clever than normal humans. As a result they help Kerlof and I plan our operations. Like the coming one."

"What is it?" Sophie asked, but Estelle shook her head. She obviously wasn't going to spill the secrets. Now, if only Soreas and Sora would tell her, assuming if they even knew, and assuming if they were friendly to her... She didn't expect them to be, since she had read Sora's mind without her permission, officially breaking the first law of telepathy, which was:_ do not ever read a mind without its owner's consent._ Or something like that.

Sophie could count on her friends, but she didn't want to put them into hot water, and they hardly had the chance to meet up these days. She missed them greatly.

Estelle stared at her, then broke off eye contact with her.

"You should go," she said, not looking at Sophie, "Time is up. I'll follow you up to the training room for your next session. Madlen should be there. He's a Polygot, and he's going to strengthen your knowledge in the languages and your mimicking." She paused. "I heard it's awful."

Great. Even Estelle knew she sucked at mimicking. Sophie wouldn't be surprised if the whole world knew.

"Is..." she swallowed, "Madlen, uh, sane?"

She didn't know why she was asking such a strange question, but she guessed it was because his first three letters were_ M, A, D. Mad._

Estelle laughed bitterly. "Oh, he's sane, alright. Sometimes. Most of the time he's the yelling type, but deep down inside he's actually quite a heartthrob." She twisted her fingers together, her cheeks blushing faintly.

Great. An insane, yelling, Black Swan Mentor. Worst nightmare ever.

"Let's go up," Estelle murmured, leading Sophie up the stairs.

Sophie's legs started to ache again.


	28. Chapter 30

**Sorry I've not updated for a long time. I'm doing a story-writing competition *crosses fingers* **

**Here you go!**

Edaline ducks her head back. And she's just in time too. The beast roars and tramples around the pastures causing the other caged up animals to growl and grumble. She runs towards Grady and he hands her a thick, rough rope. Edaline receives it and knots it tightly, her fingers flying as she ties it into a lasso.

"Aim properly," shouts Grady as he jumps from one place to another to avoid the monster's gigantic feet. The underneath of them is edged with sharp spikes that threaten to pulverize Edaline. She swoops down as the beast turns to her instead and stares at her with its black, cruel pupils. The threat is clear: this monster will not hesitate to kill them, and if possible the other creatures in Havenfield too.

Edaline whips out her Imparter while dodging the creature's aggressive attacks swiftly. "Show me Alden," she shouts into the Imparter as the creature knocks the Imparter out of her hands onto the ground. Cracks form on the screen. Edaline curses. She rolls to the ground and reaches for the Imparter and failed. She grits her teeth and swipes for the Imparter again. This time she succeeds and Alden's face appears on the screen. The cracks on it makes Alden's face look distorted.

"What happened, Edaline?" he says, an anxious look on his face.

"There's a new creature that landed on our pastures. It's wild. Call help here," Edaline says quickly. They are losing hope. She needs help urgently. They need help. A single tear slides down her cheek. "Please." she whispers.

Alden nods grimly and his face disappears. Edaline let the Imparter fall to the ground again. It breaks into a million shards of crystal. She grips the lasso tightly, wiping the teardrop on her cheek quickly then stares up at the monster. Well, with or without help, this monster's going down. Sophie needs to see her and Grady alive. She needs to.

Edaline focuses on the rampaging monster, whose attention was focused on Grady and aims carefully, whipping the lasso around her head. Then when she is sure enough that she has the right position and momentum, Edaline jumps high, whips the rope outwards, and watches as the rope lands snap-perfect around the creature's thick reptile neck. Without giving a single chance for the beast to react, Edaline lands on the ground and pulls the rope with all her might. It tightens around the reptile's neck. It screeches as it stomps around in rage.

Grady grins and gives her a thumps-up as she gasped in exhaustion. "Come on, let's do this."

They chase the terrified creature around the yard, until it knocks its face into the tall fence that surrounds the Caveside**(I can't remember what it's called)** gate. It is dazed.

"Do you think we hurt it too much?" asks Edaline sympathetically, gazing at the knocked-out creature.

"Maybe. I hope not."

Grady boosts her up onto the reptile's back and she climbs up in ease. The creature's back is scaly and rough.

Edaline pulls out a pouch. She covers her hands with gloves and pulls out a ring of teal flowers.

She places it around the reptile's neck and quickly jumps off as the creature buckles and dozes off. "It's peaceful now."

Alden and Della rushes toward them. "Are you alright?" Alden asks them.

They nod. Edaline is dripping of perspiration. She decides not to mention that.

Della glances at the now peaceful monster. "That's quite dangerous-looking. The Council, I think, needs to be informed of that. Not that I'm saying you two can't handle it, but this creature's too aggressive. It can't survive in Havenfield."

Edaline glances at it too. But she feels pity for it. It's just an innocent little animal, just a little fierce, that is all. "Please. I want to take care of it," She pleads, looking at Grady.

He starts to shake his head, but then thinks and nods.

Alden sighs. "Fine. But it really needs to be reported to the Council. Even if they are not on very good terms with...us right now." He looks weary and tired, dark circles under his teal eyes. So does Della.

"We'll come back later," Della promises as they melted away in the light.


	29. Chapter 31

**It's me again! yeah, i know I've been absent for a long time, but...*scrunches up nose thoughtfully* at least I updated, right?**

When Sophie and Estelle reached the peak of the staircase, Estelle pulled open the door and said, "Here you go. Exit the door at the other side, turn left, turn right, turn right again, and it's the second door to the left."

Sophie was panting really hard, but her photographic memory did not fail to memorize all the directions. "O-okay," then she glanced at her. "What about you?"

"I'll handle by myself, thank you very much," she said stiffly and spun on her heel to go down the stairs again, her cloak swishing vigorously. Different shades and colours of light appeared and twisted and span around her, creating a sort of light aura. Sophie didn't bother to say a farewell, as Estelle seemed like the kind of elf that did not like to say good-bye.

She exited the big door, and ended up in a corridor. Following Estelle's directions she turned left. But before she could do anything else, two voices rose up in the air, very near her. Two _familiar_ voices. Dex and...Sora?

Sophie turned around and spotted them half-hidden behind a corner of a wall. They were huddled together. Sophie gagged, pulling out an eyelash. Sora was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks. Dex was trying to comfort her by saying,"it's okay" and patting her back gently and awkwardly.

What were they doing? Why were they together? Sophie pondered as a million questions and doubts rushed through her.

Just then, Sora's eyes caught sight of her, but she did not pull away from Dex. Sophie winced, and pulled herself together. Wrenching her gaze away from them, she headed the other way and continued to follow Estelle's directions.

She ended up in another short corridor, with three rooms each on one side. Sophie walked over to the second door on the left and knocked three times, unsure. She counted the seconds. One hundred and twenty-two seconds passed. Sophie was about to give up and walk away when the door swung open, nearly knocking Sophie off her feet.

A crackly voice could be heard from inside. "Sophie Foster, isn't it?" The elf walked outside and stared at Sophie. He had smooth pale skin with muddy brown hair. His ears were slightly pointed. An Ancient. He wore a cloak of royal blue. "Come in, then. I'm Madlen." He threw his head back and laughed. "This is going to be far more entertaining than I'd expected." Sophie shuddered nervously. He reminded her of Lady Cadence, her linguistics Mentor. She followed Madlen into the room and the door slammed shut. He invited her to sit on a old cushion on the floor and he plopped down on one too. He grinned, showing perfect rows of white teeth, but that seemed to creep Sophie out even more. She reached for a loose eyelash.

"So," Madlen said, "When is the moonlark going to open her mouth and speak? Some Tamil? Japanese? Chinese? Malay? Hindi? I'm a Polygot, and so are you. It's time to start with all the Asian languages first."

* * *

Sophie gritted her teeth angrily. She was sure that she had translated every word correctly, into dozens of languages perfectly. She had been sure, very sure, and she knew she was correct. Yet Madlen still waved his hand carelessly and told her there was a better way.

"Interesting," he mused. "You seem to be able to do this perfectly, but I'm still not pleased with your different accents. You still sound like a grumpy, boring old American. Meh. Who wants that? I'll guess your weakness is mimicking. Am I right?" When Sophie nodded irritably, he clapped his hands. "Thank you for reminding me, Miss Foster. From now on, we will focus solely on mimicking."

Sophie's heart sank, and she cursed herself for telling him. Now it would be torture and torture only. She wished Keefe was here. His mimicking was perfect. Madlen would be downright pleased with him.

When she groaned, he glared at her. "Bad attitude you have there, moonlark. I wonder why Kerlof even favours you."

Sophie perked up. "He does?" she echoed, appalled. She knew Mr Forkle _did_ feel proud of her - even if it was only a little - but _favour _her? Right in front of all the Black Swan members? A surge of pride rose in her, and Madlen slapped her cheek. It was stinging and painful. Sophie rubbed her sore cheek.

Just then a knock sounded on the door. Madlen shot a look at her. "That'll teach you." Then he rose up slowly and moved like sludge across the room to open the door. Two redheads. Auburn hair, actually. Soreas and Sora. Sophie cursed, her heart sinking in dread. She had forgotten that they were Polygots too. She reached for another eyelash, then stopped herself and let her hand fall into her lap instead as she watched them move toward her and sit down on cushions too.

Soreas ignored her but Sora smiled at her. It wasn't quite friendly, though, but not too cold too.

"Welcome, Hekses." Madlen said. "Well, shall we get on?"

* * *

Sophie trudged out of the room, feeling grumpy and angry. The lesson had been a disaster. To Sophie, anyway.

Sora had cut her every time Sophie opened her mouth to answer Madlen's vague questions. Soreas had done nothing to abuse her, but he didn't exactly stop Sora from interrupting her too. Either Madlen was just oblivious, or he didn't care enough to put a stop to their behavior. He did, however, praise the two of them, Soreas and Sora, but complain and scold Sophie about her short sentences, inaccurate accents and tones used, and her wrong words and phrases. Madlen made Lady Cadence look cuddly. Of course, it would have been better if not for the two Hekses... She did not know what had gotten into Sora. When Sophie had first met her she was all kind and sweet. But now she had turned into the complete opposite. There was something up.

But she didn't have time to think about it. Madlen had pulled her aside and told her what was the next lesson and directions to get there. He wasn't very clear and now Sophie was lost. Would Mr Forkle be angry if she was late for their Telepathy lesson?

She spotted Sora crying again, with Dex. This time she walked away, ignoring them, rolling her eyes. Dex must be really free to accompany Sora every time she cries.

Just then she bumped into someone. She raised her eyes and saw Fitz. Surprised, Sophie asked, "How come you're here?"

Fitz said, "I'm hopelessly lost," He pulled out a piece of paper from his cape and unrolled it. It was a small map. "That Estelle told me how to get to the Telepathy training session by Mr Forkle but she speaks real fast..."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Now I wonder, why didn't she or Madlen give me anything?" She peered at the map and found the small circular room marked, 'Telepathy room'. "Must be biased or something." She told Fitz every detail in both of the sessions except for the trip to the Root Abyss.

Fitz raised one of his perfect eyebrows and looked at her with those teal eyes, but Sophie didn't have a crush on him anymore. She'd gotten over it. "Must be tiring for you, especially Madlen criticizing you and Sora interrupting you every time you spoke."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I was actually having quite a good time - not really but you know what I mean - before they came in," She pointed to the Telepathy Room on the map. "Here it is. It's quite obvious, actually. How come you didn't see it?" she asked as they followed the map.

Fitz looked down. "I was...distracted." He said. Sophie raised her eyebrows, curious.

"By?"

He looked away. "Sora. I saw her crying alone."

Sophie frowned. "Alone? That's weird. I saw her crying with Dex."

Fitz shrugged, then they reached a electric-blue gate with twisted metals and designs on it.

"Is this is?" Fitz asked worriedly. "I'm afraid it may be the wrong room. You never know."

Sophie looked down and saw that his hands were shaking. She extended her own shaky hand and he grasped it. Together, they pushed open the gates and went into the Telepathy Room.


	30. Chapter 32

**Marella this time.I think she's a super-special character! And thanks for all the reviews, it motivates me to write even more. You guys are the best!**

* * *

The tunnel was musty, dark and damp. All the things that Marella didn't like. She flicked her fingers and instantly, a small bright flame appeared in her hand, lighting up the room, warming her hand up and making her feel much better.

The single path was narrow and short. She had to squat and duck under to fit into the passage. After a while, the passage widened until Marella could at least stand up and walk with a little hunched still.

Marella stopped abruptly when the path forked into two passages.

"Okay..." she said slowly as she stood there, considering which one to take. Under further examination, she found out that the two paths were actually very different. One was dusty and dark with rocks, but the other one was clean, bright, light, and the ground was cemented smoothly. When Marella held her flame closer to each path, it created different shadows, one curving perfectly, and one with a oval, round circle shaped like an elegant eye. Wait - she could actually recognize familiar shapes from the weird-shaped shadows!

A perfect, slight curve, from thick to thin with an oval at the bottom. And an eye. She didn't know what the eye represented, but the other shadow...surely it was a _swan!_ The sign of the Black Swan!

Marella backed away a few steps, frightened now. If that path leaded to the Black Swan's hideout, then surely the other shadow must portray the sign of the other organization that claimed itself to be the 'good guys'!

Her mind flashed back to the piece of fabric she'd seen on her kidnapper's sleeve, and a similar one on the table at the Forbidden Cities. Then she looked back at the shadowy symbol on the walls. They were the same!

The letter...the letter wanted her to go to the organization with the symbol of the eye. Could it be because she was a Pyrokinetic? Pyrokinetics were pretty powerful too. But out of control.

Marella gazed back at the Black Swan's path, feeling a strong temptation to betray that stupid eye and go to the Black Swan instead. But when she was about to take a step forward, a thought stopped her.

That mysterious group actually _wanted_ her to join them. They thought she was somebody worth of their attention, their time, their effort. But the Black Swan hadn't done anything. Wouldn't it be better if she went to somebody that actually acknowledged her? Probably.

She changed her mind immediately and strode confidently into the other tunnel. The light welcomed her, and her fire. Marella did not put it out, and let it last as it burned brightly as ever.

* * *

She didn't regret her decision, not even a little. She stepped into the light,and there was a dead end. Marella gritted her teeth as her hope started to vanish. She glared at it, her anger burning. The rocky wall...The ground was cemented though.

_You want to seal it off? I'll break it._

Marella forced herself to calm down. She looked at the flame in her hand, and smothered it. She called up another flame, and a spark flickered brightly in her hands. Another one. And another one. Until it became a steadily growing fire in her hand. Intensity of heat grew higher and higher each time Marella concentrated.

Then she morphed the bright burning flame into a thin line about the width of her pinky finger, and used it to traced the lines of a big rectangle where the rocks were. She watched the lines she'd traced burn brilliant white-hot. When they became orange and gradually ash-black, she put out the flame and used her fingertips to scratch off the black parts - not caring that her once-perfect fingernails were breaking slightly - until she could see empty space. The rock wall rumbled. Marella ran back and watched as a big rectangle made completely out of rock started to fall toward her. She winced and covered her ears with her sooty hands as it fell down and landed on the cemented ground with a big bang.

Marella uncovered her ears and jumped onto the rock and stared at the black door in front of her. She raised her hand and fingered the smooth wood. Gold ink was inked onto it, a symbol of a creepy eye staring at her. Marella was slightly intimidated but that did not stop her from grasping the doorknob and turning it.

It clicked and she pushed the door open. Light dimmed.

She was in a dark room. It was almost empty.

All that was there was a wall with a small crack in it.

* * *

Marella cursed. Had she been led into a trap? It seemed like it. When she was about to return back to the door and into the tunnel, the door slammed shut. She looked around wildly, heart palpitating. Oh no. This was bad.

A feminine but hard voice could be heard in the darkness. "You came. Just as we expected."

Marella turned around. She stared at the crack in the wall, went over to it and peeked into it. She could see a shadowy female elf face, but that was all.

"What do you want with me?" she whispered. The elf laughed an evil cackle.

"Oh, everything," she replied. Her voice was strong and firm, yet dreamy, casting Marella into a messy state, "Your ability, your power, your loyalty...your life."

The room turned cold.

Marella spat, "You can have all that you said to me just now - except for my life."

She laughed, then stopped. "Really? Even your loyalty?" Footsteps could be heard and Marella could only see glimpses of her, which meant she was pacing around the room. "So if we ask for your loyalty, would you give it to us?"

Marella asked her who was 'us'. She said, "We're the Black Swan's opponent. The other organization. But back to the point. Would you give up your loyalty to us? Would you join us? You're very special. We know that. We acknowledge that. We accept you for that." Her voice filled with overwhelming pride, and Marella couldn't help but nod along. She was so mesmerizing.

"Say yes, my dear, say yes, and all your troubles will be blown away..."

Inside her mind, somewhere, Marella could hear a vague voice shouting at her, warning her not to say yes, that she was lying.

But the temptation to say yes, was stronger, much stronger. So strong.

Marella heard someone say, "Yes."

It took her a fraction of a second to realise that it was herself.

She felt the elf smile.


	31. Chapter 33

**Just a word with you you're busy or what,I'm sorry,but whoever you are,could you please PLEASE make time and review?Maybe you don't know this,but what we Fanfiction authors love the most are reviews, positive or negative. It makes our day a LOT,motivates us to write just take less than a minute to review our stories.I know some fanfics have lots of reviews,but remember they're not the only ones! :) And thanks for everyone who reviewed!  
**

**A big shout-out to my followers, purplicouspolkadot, Reyna Kane, Skydancer8, copicrazeunwoltxnaa, IAmJustAFangirl172, and MojoBear!****  
**

**To ForeverFreeFall: Yes, I know! It took me quite long to decide, but hey guys...**

**I am officially on Team Keefe! :D**

Sophie and Fitz stepped into the Telepathy room. It was - in Sophie's opinion - beautiful. There were not enough words to describe it. She was admiring it when something spoiled her gaze. Mr Forkle, or Sir Kerlof, as they called him. He was sitting on a white chair, his ruckleberry disguise no more. Now he looked too much like Magnate Leto, which creeped Sophie out.

"You kids," grunted Mr Forkle. "Late, as always. Just like the meeting in your old home with that Sencen boy."

Fitz stared at Sophie. "Keefe went to your old home? In the Forbidden Cities?"

Sophie nodded, blushing a little - though she didn't know why.

"Get ready," said Mr Forkle, beckoning them over to him. They moved like sludge across the room. "Sophie, sit down next to me. Fitz, stay put behind me. I'm going to show you how to strengthen your blocking."

Strengthen her blocking? Wasn't Sophie's mind impenetrable?

"Well, yes," replied Mr Forkle, seeming to read her thoughts, which he obviously had, "but remember, me, Silveny, Greyfell and Fitz can enter your mind-"

"Only because you told him how." retorted Sophie.

"Hey!" said Fitz indignantly. Sophie shrugged. She _wasn't_ the weak freak girl back in the Lost Cities now. She was the strong, powerful elf that was part of the Black Swan and proud to be.

Pride filled Mr Forkle's voice. "Sophie, break into Fitz's mind. Fitz, try to block her as much as possible."

Sophie shut her eyes and stretched out her consciousness and into Fitz's mind, breaking the weak mental wall easily. His mental voice swept over her like a breeze at once. She pulled herself out and smiled. It was easy as pie, as usual.

Fitz groaned in frustration. Mr Forkle nodded. "Yes, Sophie got through your mind. Because your mind did not have strong enough barriers to stop her from going in. You can never have an impenetrable mind like her, or me, but you _can_ make it _almost_ impenetrable. It's possible. And I'm going to teach you how.

"And Sophie, don't think that you can slack while Fitz practices. I am going to split time training with you and Fitz. You'll attempt to make your mind stronger than before. Remember when I said that there's always a chink in the amour? A hole in your mind where people can get through? We're going to focus on that, Sophie - make it as hidden as possible. There's a really strong Telepath in the Neverseen too," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "And I'm afraid his or her mind is as capable as yours, Sophie."

Sophie felt a shiver go down her spine.

Mr Forkle turned to Fitz. "Let's do this." Pressing his fingertips to Fitz's temples, he closed his eyes.

Fitz started to scream, holding his head in agony. He dropped to his knees. Sophie stood up from her chair in a flash, panicked. Somewhere, she could hear screams too.

Mr Forkle's eyes flew wide open in surprise. "Oh," he remarked. "That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?"

* * *

Sophie sighed in relief. At least Fitz was alright now. But the rest of the Black Swan...Her friends...

With Mr Forkle and Fitz, Sophie rushed out of the Telepathy Room. Madlen was there, his eyes wide with shock and pain, holding his head like Fitz had.

"I know this," he said in a strained voice. "It's the ogre mind torture."**(A/N:seriously guys, don't blame me.I don't have Everblaze on me now,only can wait til August)**

Mr Forkle straightened, clear worry in his eyes. "Do you think it's the Neverseen?"

"Yes," said Sophie. Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. She flushed. "Yes. The Neverseen are working with the ogres. They form an alliance."

Madlen grunted, then cocked his head. "Well, I guess the humans are affected too. Look, here they come."

Sophie and Fitz cringed and rubbed their temples when sharp human thoughts pricked their minds like needles. The two humans, one man and one woman stood before them, lowering their heads slightly in respect. Panic clearly filled their eyes.

"You kids," said Mr Forkle. "Hadn't anyone taught you how to block?" Sophie ignored him and slammed a mental wall up in her brain. Fitz seemed to be doing so too, because after a moment his shoulders relax. Sophie felt hers do the same thing and she sighed in relief.

Then she remembered something. "Where's Estelle?" asked Sophie.

Mr Forkle stared at her. "Who? Oh, she? Don't worry about her. Lundian can handle herself just fine."

"But-" Sophie argued. Estelle was in the Root Abyss! What if she was too weakened by the ogres' attack to escape? And alone with wild waters surrounding her wasn't a really good idea...

Mr Forkle seemed to read her thoughts. "She brought you to Root Abyss and stayed there alone?" When Sophie nodded, he cursed under his breath. "That woman. So attracted to that place, goodness knows why."

He nodded curtly to the two mortals. "Come with us." Mr Forkle glared at Sophie and Fitz. "You kids, stay here."

"But-" argued Fitz.

"Just follow Madlen. You'll see Keefe, Dex and Biana in no time. If they are safe," Mr Forkle cut in. "The ogres were lenient enough not to push a full attack on us with their stalkeenee devices. I am sure she will be safe." With that he stalked off with the two humans close behind him. The man turned his head and stared at Sophie. She stared back.

* * *

Suddenly, a sob escaped from Sophie's dry lips. Everything was wrong. The ogres were attacking the Black Swan, with the Neverseen. Estelle was most probably stuck in Root Abyss or the Neverseen might have already captured her. She and her friends were in danger. Everyone was in danger.

More tears began to well up in her eyes and Sophie slipped to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Madlen shot a death glare at her. "No time for crying, moonlark." Sophie tensed up even more at the use of that word. Moonlark! Maybe she was nothing at all, just a creation by the Black Swan.

Fitz looked worried and frightened as he helped Sophie up gently. "It's okay, Sophie. We can brood on it later. Come, let's join Biana and Keefe and Dex." Sophie shivered against his chest as she stood up with shaky legs, feeling slightly better. Well, at least she still had her friends, right? They could count on each other.

"Okay." she said in a small voice as they followed an impatient Madlen. Fitz laced his fingers between Sophie's to calm her nerves. Sophie took a deep breath and plucked out a loose eyelash. Oops, she had been trying to get rid of her nervous habit.

They arrived at the dining hall where all of the Black Swan was assembled at. There were lots of uninjured elves, some scathed with minor injuries. Others were holding their heads lightly and complaining of headaches.

But it looked empty without Mr Forkle and Estelle. Did he manage to find her? Soreas and Sora were sitting at their table, and it took everything to sit down between Sora and Fitz. Sora gave a bright smile when Sophie plopped down beside her. Sophie's eyes flew open in surprise, but she got over her shock and returned a smile, feeling warmer. Sora seemed like the old her now.

Soreas, who was sitting directly opposite Sophie, leaned over and said, "Where are your friends?" Sophie caught herself and looked around.

"Fitz?" she asked. "Where's Keefe? Biana and Dex? Where are they?" She couldn't see them anywhere. Panic started to fill her throat.

Fitz's eyes darted around frantically. Then he relaxed. "I see them, thank goodness. There they are." He pointed to another table far in the corner of the hall. Sophie released a sigh as she saw Biana, Dex and Keefe sitting there, laughing and chatting. And with them was...Sora?

Sophie looked frantically back at Sora, who was talking animatedly to her brother. Then she stared at the other Sora with her other friends. What...was...going...on? Double Soras?

Fitz also seemed to notice the mind-bugging thing. He stared at Sophie. "What's going on?"

Sophie could ask herself the same question. Instead, she turned to Sora and asked her, "Who's that, sitting beside Dex, there?" She pointed. Sora squinted, then froze for a split second. So fast that Sophie almost didn't catch it. Then Sora's wide, friendly smile returned, and asked, "Who? You mean Biana?"

"No, I..." Sophie trailed off when she realised it was no use asking Sora. Sora, either fake or real, was hiding something. Something so big that she didn't want Sophie knowing.

"I-It's nothing." said Sophie vaguely as she turned back to Fitz. She transmitted to him,_ Did you see that? She was hiding something. How come there are two of her? Which is the real one?  
_

_I really don't know, Sophie. _Fitz transmitted back to her. _But I sure hope it's the one sitting at our table now. The Sora sitting at Biana's table is quite...distant._

Sophie agreed with him wholeheartedly. At least she knew part of the reason why Sora was acting so weird. Her mind caught a memory. After Madlen's lesson. Dex comforting Sora. Fitz contradicting her facts by saying he on the other hand had seen Sora crying alone. It all made sense now.

But according to Marella, twins or triplets were considered weird in the Lost Cities. But...Dex's siblings were also triplets. Could it be possible? Sora had a twin? Then why hadn't she mentioned it before? Or Soreas?

Her thoughts were cut short when Mr Forkle trudged in, carrying a mysterious bundle wrapped in cape material. It was dripping water. And...Sophie squinted to see what it was. Then her heart nearly stopped when she realised what it was.

_Blood._

Estelle was injured badly. The two humans behind Mr Forkle rushed up and unwrapped the cloth. Mr Forkle placed an unconscious Estelle on an empty long table.

The hall fell silent. Then the whisperings started.

_What happened to Estelle?_

_She's injured. Maybe the ogres injured her?_

_Why is she drenched? Where was she when they attacked?_

At Root Abyss. That was why she was drenched. The ogres definitely injured her. There was no other explanation. But Sophie replayed her self-defense lesson with Estelle in her mind. Estelle knew how to defend herself. She knew how to_ fight_. She shouldn't have wavered so easily.

The hall fell silent again as Mr Forkle took out a spray bottle from under his cape and sprayed the transparent drops of liquid onto Estelle's limp body. Sophie counted the seconds carefully as she held her breath.

150 seconds passed when both Estelle's hands turned a pulsing bright red. Sophie swallowed as the Black Swan members muttered quietly. She looked at Fitz, Keefe, Biana and Dex. Dex didn't know what that was, but the others knew. Sophie swallowed again.

Estelle had aromark on her body. That was why she'd fallen so easily. Aromark guaranteed a direct hit when ogres' weapons were used. Estelle had been shot.


	32. Chapter 34

**Thanks for all the enthusiastic reviews, guys!I cannot tell you how awesome I feel.I feel so awesome that I'll do an author's dedication every chapter.**

**ReaderGirl6262(Thanks so much!),purplicouspolkadot(ooc?I know,it's hard,since I'm not Shannon Messenger. But thanks for the feedback!Yeah,I'm having finals too,good luck!),Kari2678(Awesome?Oh*blushes*),ForeverFreeFall(Omg you're so sweet!Thanks!Love you!), and EVERBLAZE(Hi Ever!See you've transferred back to Keeper fandom.I'm happy!Awesome!)**

**Well,this is in Edaline's POV some of you might find it boring,but things have to be done. :)**

**And I just got word from Shannon Messenger: **

**WOO! Just got word that NEVERSEEN is going to copyedits-which I know probably doesn't sound all that exciting to those not familiar with the stages of publishing. But it's a big step. It means my editor has now approved the draft, and THE HARDEST BOOK I'VE EVER WRITTEN IS DONE!***

** *Done is a relative term, of course. There will still be a few more tweaks, and I'll still have a few more read-throughs in the months ahead, but all little stuff, mostly correcting grammar, fact checking, proofreading, etc. No more rewriting entire chapters (or rewriting half the book, like I've now done-twice.) THANK GOODNESS.**

* * *

Edaline paces around the grassy fields of Havenfield, deep in thought. She keeps her eyes on the monstrous creature snoring loudly like a chainsaw, the dreamlillies still fastened around its neck. She looks sadly at the shattered Imparter and picks one of the pieces up and stares at herself reflected on the shard of crystal.

A sound makes her look up. Alden and Della have arrived, with Councillor Bronte and Councillor Oralie. Why are the Councillors here? This beast sleeping peacefully here can't be that dangerous or important, can it?

Grady stands up and bows deeply in respect, followed by Edaline. Oralie looks as pretty as ever, with her blonde princess curls framing her face and slight pink blushing her cheeks, but there are slightly dark circles under her eyes and she seems a little subdued than normal.

Edaline knows she still must be mourning over the loss of Councillor Kenric.

Bronte had the same trademark scowl as usual, and his prominent Ancient ears made him stand out. But Edaline had heard rumours that he wasn't as strict and grumpy-faced as before, saying that he smiled a little more and _giggled_ occasionally. Edaline found it hard to believe that Bronte giggled, let alone _smiled._

Sometime must have changed him. But Edaline has no time to ponder about it.

Councillor Bronte regards Grady and Edaline coldly and harshly. Oralie tries to give her warm friendly smile, but what comes out looks more like a grimace.

"Lord Ruewen and Lady Ruewen," greets Councillor Bronte. Edaline and Grady bow and mutter greetings back. They aren't really friends with Bronte, and Edaline knows that Grady doesn't like him much.

Alden steps out and begins, "Councillor Bronte and Councillor Oralie, this creature had landed on the Havenfield pastures. From what looks like it, this creature seems fierce and aggressive and can be dangerous if it gets out of hand. We need the Council's decision and total approval in order to agree to or decline the Ruewens' request." He dips a slight bow and holds Edaline's gaze for a short while. His mental voice fills Edaline's mind, a soft warm breeze rippling.

_You can say your request now._

Edaline bites her lip, then steps out as Alden steps back to join Grady. Della encourages Edaline to open her mouth and speak. So she does.

"As everyone knows, me and Grady are the most successful elves that rehabilitate the endangered species to the Sanctuary." She steps closer to them, wondering if Oralie can feel her hope and desperation, "and as per normal, we request that this creature" - she inclines her head toward the sleeping monster - "be with us until it is ready to retreat into the Sanctuary-"

Edaline bites her lip again when Bronte snaps out and interrupts her, "So we hand that aggressive creature to two of our world's most scandalous misfits - really, Lady Ruewen? Need I remind you that one year ago the name of Ruewen was uttered with scorn? How many years have you and your husband isolated yourselves at your estate, letting rumours spread of your madness? Sixteen years!" He spins and faces an overwhelmed Oralie as Edaline cringes, thinking of Jolie.

Tears pricked her eyes as she says quietly, "What do you say of this, Councillor Oralie?"

Edaline sees Grady draw in a sharp breath and take a step back. Edaline recalls that Bronte had said the almost same thing he had shot at Grady a few months ago when Silveny was being rehabilitated too. She shudders and braces herself for Oralie's reply.

Oralie shrinks a little at Bronte's death glare but otherwise stands tall. Calm settles in her warm blue eyes as she takes a deep breath and says, "Councillor Bronte, please do not be too harsh with the Ruewens. They have learnt their lesson well. I feel it." She stretches out her arm and looks at Bronte with a severe expression. "You are not disregarding my ability as an Empath, are you? I forgive them. And I suggest that you do too." She smiles, but it fades when she glances at the creature. "Do you think it is capable of your ability, Lord Ruewen and Lady Ruewen? The Alicorn is also safely rehabilitated, thanks to you."

Grady says simply, "Yes." He is glaring at Bronte, who is scowling back at him.

Bronte looks at Oralie with an almost pleading expression, which Edaline wants to laugh at but resists, "You're really handing that dangerous...thing-"

"It's not a_ thing!"_ Edaline practically shouts at him. Bronte's face twists into a scowl.

"Do not try to get yourself landed in Exlie, Lady Ruewen. And be sure to feel lucky, because I relented a _second_ time." He glares at Oralie's innocent princess-like face. "Before we take our leave, I must ask of you this one thing...Where is Sophie Foster and her scandalous friends? Do not try to lie to us. Councillor Oralie here will detect your lies if you have any."

"I did not say I would have any part in this!" Oralie argues. But Bronte ignores her.

"Fine, have it your way, Oralie, but we are going to force out the answer from these two," he says, his eyes glinting, "because I know they are hiding something. And since even that Alina and Emery couldn't make them say it..."

"That's not what you're going to do!" shouts Alden, planting his feet in front of Grady and Edaline in a sort of protective way. "And don't forget, even the Council cannot force anyone into submission."

Bronte snorts. "Imagine the Vackers backing up the Ruewens, the Sencens and the Dizznees." He utters the last word with contempt. Probably the family was a bad match.

"You-" Della rages.

Oralie places a fragile hand on Bronte's shoulder. "Bronte, please. Calm down. You really want to someone to submit a complaint that the Council forced two innocent members of the Nobility into submission just because of five children who are evidently missing?"

He takes a deep breath and said, "Fine. Since Councillor Oralie _insists"_ \- he glares at Oralie - "we shall do this the hard way."

"The hard but easy way," Oralie reminds him, facing Grady and Edaline with a forced smile again. "If you please. Lord Ruewen, Lady Ruewen, would you agree to tell us the location where the children are?" She places a hand on Grady's shoulder.

"I don't know their exact location," answers Grady truthfully. "But you can't track them. They have ripped their registry pendants off and threw them into the sea."

Oralie nods, and asks him, "Do you know why they intent to escape the Lost Cities, then? They are evidently not in the elvin world already. Are they targeting to reach a certain place in the Forbidden Cities, then?"

Grady nods.

"Where?" demands Bronte. Grady shakes his head.

"I assume the Council has enough information. Given your talented Technopaths, it should be supple to track them down."

Oralie nods. "Thank you for your co-operation, Lord Ruewen." She releases her grip on Grady's shoulder. "We will not bother you again." Then they hold up their clear crystals to the sunlight and melt away in the light.

Edaline collapses onto one of the couches.

Alden frowns. "I think we have enough excitement for the day. Grady and Edaline, you have one more creature to rehabilitate. Go do what you have to do, then get some serious rest. I'm sure there's no reason to worry."

"Okay." says Edaline in a tired voice and she watches Alden and Della glitter away through half-open eyelids.

Grady moved her to Jolie's bedroom. He looks around, a pained expression in his eyes. "I guess we should spend the night here. I know you miss her." His voice breaks.

Tears well up in Edaline's eyes. She carries Iggy's cage over to the window and whispers, "Iggy, go find Sophie. Follow her scent. I know you can. Go find her. Go find Sophie. Fly away and search for Sophie. Don't let anyone see you." The tears plop one by one onto the dark fabric of the curtains as Edaline opens the cage with shaky hands and watches Iggy fly out of the window and up into the clear night sky filled with shining stars.


	33. Chapter 35

**Hey y'all!I'm throwing this chapter in with little brainpower I have(I was writing my story-writing competition piece)so please bear with me:it's boring and contradicts facts!**

**Like I said,dedications!**

**Thanks to:**

**purplicouspolkadot:Thanks for luck!Yeah,I do know what it means...Oh well,hope you score well for your finals!**

**Readergirl6262:That's a really good compliment!And about that,I was aware of that,just that when I think of Bronte,a grumpy snappy old man comes into my mind...Yeah,no prob!**

**ForeverFreeFall:Don't worry!I'll keep writing,cause I love it!I appreciate your sympathy for Estelle!Nobody has done that before(at least,with Fanfic characters,it's so unfair when people look down on them!)you're a really sweet fan,and don't worry,Soreas will appear too!**

**Kari2678:Super thanks!I'll certainly stick with it,cause I just can't leave a story hanging,and also that I have really supportive readers!**

"Aromark," whispered Sophie, catching Fitz's eye. He looked worried too.

"You know, there's really a high possibility that she'll not live." said Soreas. Sophie glared at him.

"What?" he said, a scowl forming on his face. Then it gradually faded into a sad expression. "I _do_ care about Lady Lundian. And you can't deny she looks the palest shade of grey."

Sophie muttered a few words she wasn't supposed to say, resulting in Sora kicking her leg hard. Sophie shot a death glare at the two auburn-haired siblings and turned her gaze back to Estelle.

Sophie bit her lip till she could taste copper. Soreas_ was_ right. Estelle did look pale. Very pale. If it wasn't for the shallow rise and fall of her bloodied chest, Sophie wouldn't have hoped she was alive.

She tuned out the mutterings around the room. She had to find out if Estelle was alright. Sophie just_ had_ to.

Her mind flashed back into Exile, where Sophie had read Prentice's mind, pressing her fingers against the cold glass and reaching into Prentice's mind.

Sophie shut her weary eyes and opened her mind to Estelle. She could vaguely hear Fitz calling her but she ignored it.

Estelle's rippling mental voice rushed through Sophie at once, but it was weak. Sophie could feel her consciousness slowly slipping away, one endearing second by another one. There was no time to lose.

But what could Sophie do, anyway? All she could accomplish was heal minds, and Estelle's mind wasn't even _broken._

So she just settled into Estelle's mind and started inflicting positive emotions. Love. Happiness. Anything. But nothing seemed to work.

_Don't go, Estelle. Don't die._ She transmitted. Already, she could feel Estelle's mind shutting down like it was too tired to function. Sophie started to panic.

_People love you._ But Estelle seemed unsure. Then her mental voice spoke again, weakly.

_No they don't. I know the limits. It's time._

_They can do without me._

_I'm a daughter of a bad match._

_I'm useless._

_I'm nothing._

_No! _Sophie transmitted fiercely, causing some light to sparkle in Estelle's mind. She hadn't known the Flasher was a child of a bad match, but look at Dex! He wasn't useless. She told that to Estelle.

_And neither are you,_ she added. _Don't doubt yourself._

_I trust you._

_No you don't. The only person you trust is Fitz._Estelle snapped back, stronger this time.

_Just stop blabbering and come back! _pleaded Sophie.

_I can't. The bullet is wedged in my shoulder. _

_Mr Forkle is getting it out right now, _assured Sophie.

A pop sounded in her ears, and Estelle gasped. The bullet was out.

Sophie took advantage of that and started inflicting again, stronger this time. She thought of her best friends, so willing to come along and risk their lives in danger. Oralie, Terik, even Bronte, who had stood by her side when the others didn't. Her adoptive parents, Grady and Edaline. Silveny, who had helped her to sleep when she dreamed of the terrifying Neverseen. Even her new friends, Soreas and Sora. And Mr Forkle, who cared.

The swirling emotion gathered in Sophie's mind, and she pushed it out and into Estelle's weak mind. So strong. So powerful, that Sophie knew that even a stupid injury won't stop it.

_Remember, I can fix Prentice._

She heard Estelle sigh contentedly.

Sophie had a split second to celebrate before she was pulled out of Estelle's mind and back into cold hard reality.

* * *

"What were you thinking?" a chorus of voices practically screamed at Sophie as she winced and blinked open her eyes.

Bright light flooded into her eyes and she ducked away, shielding her face with her sweaty palms.

Sophie looked around. Not many people were in the dining hall. What had happened? Her mind was spinning way too fast to make the connections, and when she did, she slapped herself hard.

"Oh no," she said. "I went into another mind. Again. But..." She turned around. "Where's Estelle?"

Mr Forkle and her friends were surrounding her, crossing their arms and competing in a contest that name seemed to be Who Can Glare At Sophie The Longest Contest. Just because she wanted to help a close-to-death elf? Seriously?

Mr Forkle sighed, rubbing his temples. "Why did you have to interrupt, Sophie?"

Sophie glared at him with the most menacing stare she could manage - which she probably looked like a small child wanting to whimper. Then she sighed. "Interrupt what? Please say I helped. Because I _really_ hoped I did help."

Keefe smirked at her. "Oh, you did help. But she came back for, like, three seconds before going into a deep coma again. At least she was muttering something that nobody could interpret and her legs were kicking out like she has a spasm. Foster just has to do something to make her a crazy madwoman, right?"

Sophie flushed. "Then attempt to try it yourself!"

"You know that's only a job for elves like you, right, Foster?"

Sophie whirled back to Mr Forkle. "He could do it too! And why didn't you!"

"My mind is not like yours," was all he said.

Dex said, "I probably could've helped too. Let's say, a gadget..." His eyes glazed over dreamily.

Biana merely rolled her eyes. "_Technopaths_. But really, Sophie, Estelle _was_ nearly going to die. And she looked horrible - in both injury-wise and fashion-wise. But I have to say, you did a really good job."

"Thanks." Sophie murmured, her nerves tangling in her gut.

Fitz said, "I tried to stop you but you were completely oblivious. Like the only thing that mattered was to save Estelle."

"It was." replied Sophie.

Mr Forkle raised his hand, silencing all conversation. "Sophie, what you did there was dangerous. And rude. But I'm not going to focus too much on that. You _did_ heal her - greatly. But she's not recovered yet, I'm afraid. I know you want to see her, so we'll be doing that in a short while. In the meantime" - he turned away, rubbing his temples as if he was weary - "go rest."

"Wait," called Sophie. "What about training?"

"Training will be resumed tomorrow." Then Mr Forkle rose and went out.

The double doors banged shut, the sound echoing through the hall. It was only Sophie and her friends left.

"You think the Neverseen and the ogres really are posing an attack against us?" Sophie asked quietly.

They all fell silent too.

Biana spoke. "Well, I do. But you know what's my opinion? They're not only attacking the Black Swan. I have a really bad feeling that they will attack the Lost Cities too."

"I agree with Biana here." chimed in Keefe. Biana blushed fiercely. Keefe caught her and winked.

"Stop playing with Biana, Keefe." said Fitz, who seemed to notice too.

_Well, Biana has a crush on Keefe anyway. You can't blame her._ Sophie transmitted to Fitz.

_Biana likes Keefe? Really?_ Fitz's grin spread wider and wider.

_Don't you tease-_

"Hey, what did I say about secret telepathic conversations?" said Keefe, interrupting them. "Unless you two like each other, I see no reason. Huh, Foster? Yes, Fitz?"

Sophie and Fitz both flushed and looked at anywhere but each other.

"But that's not the point," argued Sophie. "So, it's pretty clear that this won't be the Neverseen's last attack."

"There will sure be more coming." said Dex, who had remained silent and rather sulky. Sophie looked at him and felt pitiful.

"Awe, Dex, come gimme a hug."

Dex obliged and when they pulled away, his face was raspberry red. The others looked rather uncomfortable, except for Biana, who was tapping her fingers and smirking.

"Well," said Fitz, clearing his throat, "we saw something very unusual just now. Sophie, want to take over?"

Sophie told them about the strange fact that there were two of Sora.

"REALLY?" asked Biana, obviously intrigued. "I know she sat with us! I saw her with my very own eyes!" She tapped her perfect teal eyes in a weird way.

"Okay...Biana stop that - you're creeping me out." said Keefe. "So, Foster's basically saying that there is this girl named Sora Heks, and there is another elf that looks exactly like her?" When Sophie nodded irritably, he shuddered. "Well, that's creepy."

"Very creepy indeed," remarked Dex. "What could be the reason? Maybe they're twins, like the way the triplets work. Or maybe..."

Fitz interrupted him by saying, "But their personalities are-"

"Completely different." finished Sophie. "Like, one of them is totally kind and the other is totally creepy."

Keefe clapped her on the back. "I like your explanation, Foster."

"So what are we going to do?" asked Biana. "I mean, I guess we could follow her and make her meet up with her twin, and demand explanations from them. Not that it's any of our business."

"Maybe we're just too nosy," Sophie wondered aloud. "Or maybe not. It's good to be a little concerned. Let's not talk about that. What have you all been learning during training?"

Keefe piped in excitedly, "The training was awesome! I learned some attack techniques from Estelle, how to make my empathy stronger, but um, that Madlen dude was just creepy. But he said my mimicking was excellent!"

Sophie's heart sank. Even _Keefe_ surpassed Sophie in mimicking.

"I sense some strong emotions." he said, but Sophie just mumbled a string of nonsensical words and let Dex continue.

"Well, Technopathy wasn't as good as when Lady Iskra Mentored me, but I had this Technopath guy that taught me how to fuse everything together and make it work without a button." he told Sophie.

Biana perked up and continued, "So, I had this weird Mentor who insisted that I call her Eck. Like, who'd call themselves Eck? Like a gagging sound. But she taught me how to connect myself properly to other stuff or people so they'll vanish along with me too. Like wearing an accessory."

"Cool, sis. Telepathy was interrupted when the ogre mind torture rang out," Fitz said, cringing when he thought of that. "It wasn't pleasant to experience it a second time."

"Me too." the others except Sophie chorused in unison.

"I'm sorry." said Sophie. It seemed horrible when her friends suffered when she didn't even blink once when it happened.

"It's not your fault." assured Biana.

"I hope so," whispered Sophie.

Just then Mr Forkle burst through the doors, making the five children jump.

"You kids," he said. "So easily frightened." He beckoned them toward the exit, which they did. "It's time to see Lundian."


	34. Chapter 36

**Hey guys!Who just turned twelve today?THIS GIRL!*points at myself*22th June,MY BIRTHDAY.  
**

**Anyways,sorry for not updating sooner than I'd expected.I'm seriously really busy.**

**THEONE:Thanks a TRIILLION!**

**ForeverFreeFall:Maybe,maybe not.*mysterious smile*Anyways, Beefe?Um,their official shipping name(I think)is Keana,butI'm not going to change your way of thinking. Thanks for being my biggest fan!Made my day,didn't you!**

**Kari2678:Here's the update!And thanks so so much for reviewing!It means a LOT to me!**

**EVERBLAZE:Glad to know that!And...Dramione?Draco&amp;Hermione?*gags*You know I don't like that ship...Thanks for being awesome all the way!Keephie...(I prefer Keester, but WATEVA!*deryn pun*)**

**Sara:Thanks!I'm so happy that so many people like my story...You guys are the best!**

**Marella's POV.I know,you guys like Sophie-chapters more,but I like writing it too.I'm better in chapter is quite short,but enjoy all the same! **

* * *

Marella almost laughed with that woman, but she resisted herself and asked, "Now what?" The other elf pulled out a small round glass bottle and poured the red fluorescent liquid over the crack. Little bits of plaster gave way, making the crack in the wall bigger.

The woman hauled Marella over. "Now you meet someone who will escort you."

Marella wondered who it is. She didn't expect them to be so exposed. She had expected all secrets. No truths. Only illusions and delusions.

She looked at the hood the woman wore over her face. She couldn't see it. Bummer. The woman had long, jet-black, shiny hair and a slim figure. She wore the black patch with a white eye on her sleeve. She was one of them, no doubt.

"She should be coming by now," The woman gritted her teeth impatiently and stared behind Marella. Marella followed her gaze and saw a small trapdoor on the dusty rocky floor.

"Why am I here?" asked Marella nervously. The woman whirled around to face her.

"You're a Pyrokinetic," she answered. "Why else? You read the note. You should know."

Before the woman could answer, the trapdoor creaked open and a small hooded figure - a girl - seeming about Marella's age popped out.

"Jin, you're late," the woman snapped. "What kept you?"

Jin raised her head. Marella couldn't see her face too. "It was hard escaping from there. Too many watchful eyes. And I was affected by my mind. It hurts."

"Whatever," said the woman, waving her hand carelessly. "What about the other one? How's she coping?"

Marella thought she heard Jin grit her teeth. "You know she's loyal to them. She won't listen to us. So, I'm here. Is this the one?" She stared at Marella, giving chilly vibes down her spine.

Marella forced her voice to work. "Yes."

Jin had brownish-red hair that curled around her shoulders. "Come with me."

* * *

They were walking down a dim corridor.

"Jin? Where is this?"

"I can't tell you. But this" - she darted around nervously - "is the Neverseen base."

The word sent chills down her spine. Neverseen? It must be the name of this organization.

"What about the Black Swan?"

Jin fell silent. "I can't tell you, so shut up!" She sounded almost desperate. Marella was taken aback.

"I've revealed enough already!" she shouted, her voice echoing down the hall.

Marella kept her mouth shut as Jin arrived at a door. She turned to Marella. "This will be your place for the night. Good night. I will come and fetch you in the morning." She gestured for Marella to go in.

Marella went in and studied the empty dusty room. There wasn't even a bed.

She sighed, feeling lonely, scared and vulnerable. Why had she chose to go here anyway? She could still remember that woman giving her a choice. Why didn't she say no? Why did she say yes?

Because the woman wanted her to.

And why must she listen to her?

Marella could still hear the lulling, enchanted voice, convincing her to-

Marella gasped. That woman must've been a Mesmer! It was the only logical conclusion.

So she'd been mesmerized. And as a result, she ended up here. Why was she that wanted and important anyway? Sure, she got that she had the forbidden talent, but...

Marella slid down the wall and lay down, wincing when the cold hard ground cut into her sore body. She evidently needed rest. Marella slowly drifted off to sleep. Little did she know that somewhere else, through the raging water, many things were happening that she didn't know about.

* * *

**Question:Who do you think Jin is?What is she hiding?  
**


	35. Chapter 37

**Hey guys!Sorry for not updating.I went to various places and met out with my friends;).**

_**PLEASE READ THIS:**_

**I have two big exams coming soon,one in July-August,one in Sep-Oct. They're both extremely important,and I need to study for them real hard to get into a favourable secondary-school.I'll probably update at weird times,so please excuse me.I'll be probably free in...Oct-Nov. **

**Yeah, I know you guys are 4-5 months from now?I'm also very sorry. I'll surely update,and sometimes this story will be on hiatus. So is my crossover.I'm trying to update as much ;)  
**

* * *

**Readergirl6262:I did give some obvious clues...but WATEVA!And about that,you'll just have to wait and see,ok?Thanks for reviewing!Love you!**

**ForeverFreeFall:About that...I guess you just have to wait and see!Soreas and Biana?Woah,I won't control what you ship,but it's not happening in here...*sheepish smile*Sorry...Maroon was my mistake,though.I always thought it was ,thanks for wishing me Happy birthday and reviewing!You're so sweet!**

**EVERBLAZE:Even though you changed your name,I am still gonna call you EVERBLAZE. Derder did affect me lots(circle of influence.o.0)and Jin,sadly,is not a Chinese name,not 津津有味.But it's an Asian name!And don't worry about twinkletoestbh,I guess you have to try harder next time,my friend!:)  
**

**Guest:Thank you so much!I love you ,seriously.**

**Thanks for twinkletoestbh for following/making the story a favourite!Update sooner,fellow fanfic author.**

**R&amp;R!**

* * *

Sophie tensed. "Estelle...hang in there." she whispered. Biana clutched her hand, then looked up at her encouragingly.

"It's going to be alright. No reason to worry." Biana said. Sophie rolled her eyes and forced a nervous smile, and followed Mr Forkle and the boys out of the dining hall.

They winded down a wiggly path and into two double doors. It reminded Sophie strangely of the Healing Center. Corked bottles of medicine stood on shelves that threatened to topple over, and beds that looked weirdly familiar, and a man that...

Sophie, Dex, Fitz, Keefe and Biana gasped.

"Elwin?" they asked in unison. Elwin raised his iridescent glasses slightly and smiled.

"You weren't expecting me at all, were you?"

"B-but how could you be in two places in one time?"

Elwin smiled. "I'm in the Lost Cities in the day, then I rest a little while in the night and go to the Black Swan to work as healer."

Sophie leaped over and hugged him. "It feels so good for you to be here too," she mumbled through the fabric. Then she pulled away, looking around. "Where's Estelle?"

Elwin's bright smile vanished. "She's over in the other room. Come, let's see her."

Mr Forkle turned away and exited the room.

* * *

The six of them entered the room quietly.

"Estelle?" Elwin called softly. "Some people are here to visit you." Silence followed.

Then a weak fragile voice Sophie hardly recognised as Estelle's spoke. "Who?"

Sophie stepped out of the gloom, drawing in a sharp breath. Estelle looked deathly pale and there was a horrible deep gash in her chest. She looked exactly like what a person close to death would be. To add on the tension, Bullhorn, Elwin's banshee, was sleeping beside her.

"How can you still speak?" Sophie whispered.

"Are you alright?" Dex asked worriedly. "I-I hope..." He trailed off, but Sophie knew what he had been wanting to say.

_I hope you don't die._

"But I thought Foster here healed you." Keefe said quietly. Estelle managed a weak smile.

"She did. I'm healing. Not slipping away, don't...worry..." Her eyes began to snap shut.

Elwin rushed over to her side and shook her awake. Estelle's eyes fluttered open, but they seemed wearier than before.

"Don't try to speak yet," he warned. "It's eating at your energy." Estelle didn't argue and stared at Sophie and her friends instead. Her aquamarine eyes were much dimmer when Sophie had first seen her. She looked at the others. They were practically shaking, their faces as white as sheet. Death was so rare in the Lost Cities, so they were scared to see elves die.

Sophie sat on her bed and started to caress Estelle's arm. "Don't die." she whispered. "I still need your help to heal Prentice." Sophie wasn't sure if Estelle had heard her. Her eyes stared into blank space, barely blinking.

Elwin sighed. "I dare not give her any sedatives, lest she can't come back. So I'm trying everything to help her escape from death. Though I dare say she can make it."

Biana bit her lip numerous times and when she spoke her voice was shaking. "S-so what can w-we do?" She looked at Estelle and her face turned paler until she looked like she was about to puke. Fitz steadied her gently as she swayed, moaning softly. He looked nauseous too. Alden had looked the same when his mind was broken.

"I think our friend Biana needs to rest," Elwin declared, helping Biana to another bed at the opposite side of the room.

Estelle sighed. "Please, I won't die," she said. She tried to sit up, wincing as she did so. Finally she managed it and forced a smile at Sophie, Dex, Fitz, and Keefe. "I'm alright now." To prove it, Bullhorn scattered away from her and started screaming at the top of his voice.

Elwin, Sophie, Dex, Fitz, Keefe, and Biana all cringed, covering their ears. "Bullhorn's ever so noisy," Keefe muttered.

"But Estelle's still in danger." Fitz said. Keefe rolled his eyes.

"Like I didn't know that." Sophie smiled at their argument despite herself.

"Well," said Elwin, "at least Estelle's not that close to death anymore." He gave Estelle a bottle of Youth to drink and a few serums. Then he flashed a few coloured lights of the spectrum and gave a smile. "Her cells are healing fast. Thank goodness."

They all sighed in relief and Biana wobbled over to join them too. Fitz's and Biana's eyes were wary with doubt and fear. Keefe and Sophie came over and squeezed their shoulders, comforting them. And surprisingly, Dex.

"I thought you hated Fitz and Biana." Sophie whispered to him. Dex snorted.

"Please, I still do. It's just that Wonderboy needs some comfort too, sometimes."

* * *

"Estelle! You're walking!" said Sophie, appalled. Estelle smiled.

"I heal fast, don't I?"

Sophie, Estelle, and Elwin were alone in the room. Mr Forkle had called her other friends for a meeting for goodness-knows-what.

"Now, now, none of that, Estelle," Elwin warned her sternly. "You may be well and walking now, but I still expect you to rest tomorrow. I won't allow you to go to training." Estelle scowled.

"Why? Fine. But only one day. Time is running out."

This had Sophie perking up. "Why? What?" Elwin muttered something and fled the room.

Estelle looked down at the ground. "There's still a lot more things we need to do. Number one: heal Prentice. We need to break into Exile, which isn't a problem but you five hadn't been trained right and proper yet. Number two and three: stop the Neverseen from their devious schemes. Which is a lot. Like the Everblaze. We need another way other than frissyn to stop the wild fire. Frissyn is hard to create and it's dangerous, because we need to collect Quintessence. Number four: there's a really powerful Telepath in the Neverseen that we will need to stop - he or she's stronger than Kerlof. Number five: we haven't told you this, but there's really a leak in the Black Swan. Someone betraying us. So we will need three of you five to be double agents."

* * *

"What?" Sophie asked, shocked. "We, double agents? Y-you know what happened to...Jolie."

Estelle flinched. "Jolie, ah yes. It's probably a very reckless plan, but it needs to be done. It's necessary. Why three? Because we couldn't have one; it's too dangerous, but we couldn't have all five of you too. So, three."

"But why not Soreas and Sora then?" argued Sophie. "They're more talented than us."

"Ah, that's the thing," Estelle said. "None of us trust them. Especially Sora. Some of us are seeing double and we suspect that Sora has a twin - which I know she has. And that twin is very devious - could probably be working for the Neverseen."

Sophie went all quiet. She knew that Sora had a twin sister or something, but...working for the Neverseen?

Reporting to Sora and Soreas?

Unbelievable.

"So, the double agents will be going to the Neverseen in about a few weeks. And oh" - Estelle caught Sophie's gaze, looking straight into Sophie's eyes - "you will definitely be one of them."


	36. Chapter 38

**Buah,I'm back!And today's officially 1st day of school,no...*cries*But fear not,I'll still update(though my teachers are driving us like _crazy_).  
**

**EVERBLAZE:I'll study hard!(You too,kay?)I hope my story's forever awesome,and it's def. not perfect,though...About thatLook at the cover.:(**

**Kari2678:Sure,why not since I'm following the cover?Here's your update and thanks for waiting patiently!;)**

**ForeverFreeFall:Really?Amazing?*blushes*Thanks,like a LOT!Er...I just write?And don't worry,practice makes better(not perfect,nobody's perfect,not even SW Messenger;))**

**But about Estelle...I'm...super...sorry...**

**Exams suck,but I guess sometimes fun too!Good luck for your next exams!And thanks for fav.(ing) this story!=)**

"But...why when anything happens it always has to do with me?" Sophie asked nervously, shocked at Estelle's words, still ringing in the air. "And if you think I'm going to let my friends put their lives in serious danger - well, you're wrong. I won't. If I have to go alone, I will."

"You're very loyal," Estelle noted, her corners of her lips turning up slightly, "which is remarkable about you, but that's also your fatal flaw, and if you're not careful the Neverseen can use it to hurt you. But no can do to grant your request, I'm afraid, Sophie. I'm very sorry, but this is what we have to do. Fitz, Keefe, Dex and Biana must have known if they were joining us, their lives will _always_ be in great danger. So will yours."

Sophie opened her mouth to argue but was cut short when Mr Forkle and her friends came in again. Her friends' faces were all flushed, and Mr Forkle looked like he was about to get down to serious business.

* * *

"You know about the selection of three double agents already?" Mr Forkle asked incredulously when Sophie argued just about that.

"I told her," Estelle said proudly, holding her head high.

"Oh, so Foster knows about that? The old dude just told us-"

"Please do not call me the old dude." Mr Forkle interrupted abruptly.

"-That three of us are gonna be double agents. Like what, that is the coolest thing ever! Think about all the things-"

"This is not a game, Keefe," said Fitz, shooting a look at him. Keefe fell silent but he still had a silly big smirk plastered onto his face.

"Well, I just hope I get chosen." he muttered under his breath, and it was Mr Forkle's turn to glare at him.

"Like the Vacker boy said" - Fitz flinched - "this is definitely not a game, considering the seriousness of the situation. We indeed have a traitor among us who reports to the Neverseen, Sophie-"

"I have told her already, Sir Kerlof," snapped Estelle. Then her eyelids drooped, and she mumbled, "Excuse me, I need to rest."

Sophie might have been hallucinating but she saw Mr Forkle's lips curve into a small smile. "-And that traitor is obviously related to the Heks children. Sorajin might have a twin or she doesn't, but she has a double of herself - which is no, not equal to a twin, Biana. Sora is loyal and her double isn't - but there's no telling if she'd tell her secrets or not. Meanwhile when Sophie and two others are infiltrating the Neverseen base-"

Sophie had just spotted a loophole in the so-obviously-not-going-to-work plan. "But the Neverseen would _never_ let me and my friends be part of Neverseen. They know we aren't to be trusted and probably reporting their every move to the Black Swan."

"Ah," Estelle said from her bed. They turned around to stare at her. "This is where the difficult part comes in - for Sophie, at least. It will hurt you greatly. You must convince them that the Black Swan are doing to you what they aren't."

Chills went down Sophie's spine. Her friends looked equally frightened - and angry, Sophie noticed as she was suddenly pushed behind them.

"Look, if you think she's going to be your-" Dex said.

"What?" Sophie asked, cutting Dex off. "What do they want me to do?"

Her mind was spinning to fast to make connections, and it seemed that her friends were much smarter than they are.

"Don't worry," Mr Forkle said. "Didn't Lundian said 'convince'? We're not actually doing it."

"Yes, but still-" Biana, Keefe and Fitz argued.

Sophie was exasperated. "What? Am I that dumb? What is their plan?"

Fitz sighed, and sat down beside her, forcing her to look into his teal eyes. "Sophie, when you first heard of the Black Swan and found out they were your creators and making you do everything you didn't mean to do, what did you think you were to them?"

Sophie's mind whirled, slightly confused. "What-? I don't-"

"You thought they were pulling strings and controlling you." added Keefe, his ice blue eyes begging her to understand. They were scared to just tell her directly, Sophie realised.

"Like a-" Dex and Biana said in unison. Then the realisation hit her like a bullet, and old bitter feelings that were forgotten rushed back into her. Sophie sucked in a deep shaky breath.

"Little puppet." Sophie whispered. The words rang loudly in her mind, making her dizzy.

_Their little puppet._

Mr Forkle and Estelle looked most troubled. Estelle especially. She looked weary and tired.

"Surely you must understand, Sophie-" Mr Forkle began. Sophie whirled on him and Estelle but he didn't flinch at all. Neither did she. But Estelle was quickly scribbling something on a paper, beads of perspiration dripping down her cheek.

"No! Why must I? You're admitting that I'm your puppet, and that's the last thing I want to be! After doing so much, sacrificing so much, for the Black Swan, and _you want me to be your little puppet again?"_

Rage, fear and bitterness swirled inside her, creating a large, wild, swirling vortex.

"Sophie, please stop-" a chorus of voices echoed around, but Sophie was too stricken to listen.

She pushed everything out of her mind with all her might, then collapsed down on the cold hard ground. Through her half-lidded eyes she thought she saw Estelle scream in agony, writhing in pain.

Her vision cleared and she saw Estelle unconscious on the bed, a pained expression on her face. Her laboured but shallow breathing made Sophie feel all the more worse.

"What have you done?" spat Mr Forkle in horror as Sophie's vision swirled again.

"What have I done?" She whispered the same question as a black wave crashed over her mind.

* * *

"Wake up, Sophie! _Wake up!"_

Sophie groaned and opened her eyes slowly. She moved her body but she felt no pain. "What-"

She sat up, and found herself face-to-face with a half-worried, half-angry Elwin.

"Sophie, you made things worse - until they cannot be any more worse. I'm sorry, but this time, I'm really angry at you."

"What did I do-" Sophie started, then fell short when her memories rushed back to her.

"Oh no. No. No. No...**_NO!"_** She shouted, then fell out of bed. The pain stabbed at her knees but she ignored it as she rushed to the bed beside her. Tears began to fall like a waterfall. Bitter, angry, and regretful tears. She stared at the body in front of her.

Cold.

Estelle was dead.

* * *

"Take a deep breath, Sophie," Elwin instructed, holding out the bottle of Youth for her to drink it down. Sophie ignored him, staring in horror at the corpse in front of her. When she finally recovered her shock, the tears started flowing again, slower this time. She felt nothing but grief and regret.

Why?

Why did this had to happen again?

First, it was Alden. Next, it was Kenric.

And when she thought it couldn't get any worse, now it was Estelle.

Was she a kind of curse or what?

Guilt started to seep into her mind.

It was all her fault. Her fault-

A electrifying shock zapped through her mind, snapping her out of the guilt. Sophie looked up in shock and saw Mr Forkle, and her friends. Dex, Fitz, Keefe and Biana all wrapped her in a tight embrace. Sophie knew her tears and saliva was smearing onto their clothing but she didn't care.

She wouldn't let herself succumb to guilt. Never ever.

Estelle might be gone, but there were still many important things to do. She would make Estelle and Kenric proud.

* * *

**Ugh,I'm so sorry!:'(((The feels are getting the better of me...See you next time when I finally calm myself down, because she's one of my most fav. characters I've written. :'( SORRY ONCE AGAIN!**

**Please don't be angry at me...**


	37. Chapter 39

**I'll explain why I had to-*winces*-Estelle... is Sophie' I'm planning to do Marella then back to Forbidden for understanding,not hating me,and reviewing this story that used to be so short.I'm really grateful.  
**

**I'm not gonna do Lost-Cities-POVs already,because I think the story's done from there.**

**Blah,wateva-with-the-ranting-already.**

**EVERBLAZE:真的？我可以当一个作家？哦，，那时我长大后要做的一件事!对,Chan-Chan今天没来,我真的是太幸运了！  
**

**ForeverFreeFall:OOOOHHH YES.I am still utterly DEVASTATED about it:'(.Sorry for all the STILL!Um,I think that artist's me,I sent a art of SophiexKeefe to Shannon Messenger's Pinterest account and she pinned it. Thank you so much for reviewing!Uh,may the odds be ever in your favour!(Is that how you say it?)**

**Kari2678:You're one of the sweetest and kindest reviewers here,so I should really thank you profusely!Ahh...Don't...make...me...sad...again...But I guess we have to MOVE ON!**

* * *

"Sophie?" asked Biana softly, letting the boys enter before closing the door slowly. "Are you alright? Obviously not, because you look terrible."

Sophie brought her eyes to the mirror in front of her and stared at her reflection. What attracted her most was her brown eyes. She was obviously different - an anomaly. Who would want to make friends with a freak that always seemed to cause nothing but trouble?

She was sure it was her fault that two elves died, Fintan sparking the Everblaze, the Lost Cities and the Forbidden Cities in danger.

Sophie turned around and looked at her friends' worried faces and felt guilty. The whole world was in great danger now and she was wasting valuable time mourning.

"Oh well," Sophie forced her voice to work. It sounded hoarse, so she cleared her throat awkwardly and tried again. "Fine. So, three of us to go to the Neverseen."

"Awesome." said Keefe brightly, but it sounded forced - he was trying to make Sophie feel better. Sophie squeezed his hand nervously and he returned it.

"I know you're still upset over Es-" Fitz started.

"Don't mention her name!" Sophie shouted, making all of them jump in shock. She softened. "Sorry. Who do you think should go besides me?"

"Me," Dex piped in quietly. "I'm always left out. I know that I kind of betrayed Sophie-"

"Yes you did," snapped Biana, glaring at Dex. "You're the reason why Sophie went so depressed. And she got weaker for a while. Maybe it's even permanent! And whose fault would it be? Yours!"

Hurt flashed across Dex's face, then he went all quiet, stalked out of the room and slammed the door.

Sophie bit her lip until she tasted copper. Biana was a very loyal friend - which Sophie admired - but maybe _too_ loyal.

She winced as Biana sat down and shooed Fitz and Keefe away from their dormitory and forced Sophie to look into her eyes. Her pretty teal eyes held Sophie's as she said, "Everything will be alright."

Sophie felt a wide yawn spread her mouth. Biana smiled. "You're tired. You should go to sleep." Her voice was strangely lulling as Sophie closed her eyes and tried to forget about all her troubles. It had been a hectic day after all.

* * *

Sophie resumed training tomorrow. It was the same except for the fact that Estelle wasn't here to teach her anymore. Instead, a girl with a dark hood walked in, her eyes covered by the shadows. Red-brownish hair curled down to her shoulders and beyond, and a smile was playing on her lips. She looked strangely familiar.

"I am Jin." The girl said. "I'll be replacing Lady Lundian in self-defense."

_Jin..._A nagging thought pushed at Sophie's mind but she couldn't place her finger on it. She sighed. This was going to be a long lesson.

* * *

"What happened to you, Sophie?" asked Dex worriedly.

Sophie blinked. "Huh?" she said innocently, feigning ignorance. Her whole body hurt but she chose not to mention it to Dex.

"Uh, have you looked at yourself?" said Biana dryly and handed Sophie a small hand mirror with intricate carvings. Sophie took it and stared at her face. She had a black eye and a pinkish-red bruise and a scrape on both sides of her cheeks. She repressed a sigh. It was that girl Jin's fault. Unlike Estelle she wasn't at all kind or sympathetic, but ruthless. Sophie had been beaten up - she knew she stood no chance for Jin. But who the hell was that girl anyway?

"Um. Well..." Sophie started, and told her friends everything. Soreas and Sora were there too, and they listened intently.

"Woah. Hey, sis, doesn't that sound like your-" Soreas started but Sora kicked him under the table and shot him a secret look and he fell silent at once. Sophie stared at them, confused, but after a while shrugged and looked at her friends who had their mouths gaping in shock and anger.

"How dare she?" Biana gritted her teeth. "I'm sure it's child abuse and furthermore, you're Project Moonlark and super important. Well, sort of. I personally think that we should report this to Mr Forkle a.k.a. Magnate Leto a.k.a. Sir Kerlof."

"Anyone who bullies The Great Foster should be punished." agreed Keefe.

Dex was simply pissed off, but because there was still tension among the five of them he didn't say anything and just sat there folding his arms, evidently fuming mad.

Fitz didn't get angry. Instead, he took her hand. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking at her scars. Sophie looked down.

_No. _"Yes."

"You sure?"

_No. _"Yes."

Just then, Sophie decided on something.

"That Jin is so going down." She said, gritting her teeth bitterly. Suddenly she hated her new self-defense Mentor more than ever.

"Hell right you are," agreed Keefe, grinning mischievously. The others agreed too, except for Soreas and Sora, who sat there spacing out, biting their lips and twining their fingers together.

* * *

From that day onward, Sophie made it a point to work hard in training. She practiced mimicking with Madlen, Sora and Soreas until it was almost perfect. She was able to block Mr Forkle from entering her mind, even if it was only for two to three seconds. She endured the pain from self-defense lessons until she was able to pack a neat punch at Jin. Her injuries got lesser. Her confidence rose higher. She lived up to her potential.

She could still remember Councillor Terik telling her that he sensed something strong. Sophie knew what he meant now. If she tried her hardest, she could do great things. It just depended on what kind of great things - good or bad.

And then came the day when things were finally getting serious.

* * *

"I believe you are strong enough to heal Prentice now," Mr Forkle told her. "You managed to enter my mind and block me from entering your mind. Maybe even ready to become a Keeper."

Sophie and Fitz straightened up. That was the first time he had touched on Keepers - extremely talented Telepaths that protect secrets by using their mind.

"Can I be one too?" Fitz asked curiously and hopefully. Mr Forkle gave a small smile. He looked too much like Magnate Leto.

"Of course, but you won't be as strong as Sophie." Sophie wanted to shout at him - she was sure that Fitz felt a little hurt right now. "You can be her guide-"

"Really?" the two of them shouted.

Mr Forkle rolled his eyes. "Are you two that happy to be with each other?"

Sophie and Fitz flushed and looked anywhere but at each other. Mr Forkle gave another small smile - this time a smug one.

"I'm sure Sir Tiergan has already pointed out why this is the best choice. Moreover, you two trust each other."

"Well, that's true." Sophie and Fitz said in unison. Mr Forkle frowned.

"I have to warn you that healing Prentice is most likely harder than healing Fintan's mind."

"Why so?" Fitz challenged. "Fintan was an Ancient, but Prentice isn't. So he couldn't probably twist his mind-"

Mr Forkle waved the sentence away. "You underestimate him. He is a Telepath but Fintan isn't. He's a Keeper but Fintan isn't. And not forgetting the point that Prentice's mind was broken for _ages_. It's going to be hard healing his broken mind."

Sophie plucked out an loose eyelash. "Oh. So-?"

"The only way to get to him is by the part of his brain that hasn't succumbed to the madness yet," Mr Forkle explained. "You can start healing there. But finding that place needs tremendous skill and talent. You have to send the right thing, and no ordinary Telepath will be able to find it. It's only known to Keepers. That's why you need to be one."


	38. Chapter 40

**I'm back!Marella.I'm waiting for eleven butterflies to flutter in my book,btw.**

**EVERBLAZE:谢谢你，谢谢你。你有学习口式吗？Thanks for reviewing!**

**ForeverFreeFall:Yes,you're right!You're smart. Boo,Jin. Lol. :D.I dunno why but when I read your reviews I always burst out laughing(maybe because of the Boos.) Oh well. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Kari2678:I sure am dying too!Thanks for reviewing!Update's here,btw.**

**I might not be updating any sooner, probably next week ,thank you for bearing with me!You guys are the best!**

Marella woke up-

And found a hooded face staring at her.

"AH!" she screamed, shoving a flame at the face. A shriek erupted from the person and he or she jumped away, the hood falling away. A sharp face with dark aquamarine eyes and auburn hair was quivering in fright. But she quickly recovered, stood up and covered her face again. The sign of an eye covered her sleeve.

Marella frowned. "Jin, is that you? I didn't know you could be so frightened." Jin cursed under her breath, sighed, and uncovered her hood again. She was quite pretty, but her eyes were cold despite the beautiful shade of blue. _A waste, _Marella mused, and got up slowly.

"I guess there's no point hiding my appearance anymore, huh?" Jin said bitterly. "Might as well tell you two more secrets. The woman's name is Elodie, and she's a Mesmer. Our organization is called the Neverseen, and this is our symbol." She tapped the fabric near her sleeve, pointing to the ominous-looking eye staring right at Marella. Marella stared back.

"Alright, one more piece of information. We've been sedating you, and letting you sleep for one month," Jin told Marella, smiling a little. "We needed to keep you under control. Looks like you're back to your old self again." She smiled again. Marella felt fury rise in her but she clamped it down quickly. She didn't want Jin to provoke her and weaken her.

"Ah," Jin sighed, walking out of the room, gesturing to Marella to follow her, "I guess when my mouth's open, it can't stop. Our leader's somewhere else now, so Elodie's taking temporary leadership. Though she's doing a pretty bad job of it, I must say."

"Where are we going?" Marella asked curiously but Jin slapped her in the face. It stung hard, and the least Marella could do was to hold back her tears.

"Stop asking questions, Marella. You should be grateful that I've given in so much." Jin snapped, and flung open the grey door in front of them, and invited Marella in. "Elodie's all yours."

* * *

Well, Elodie didn't hide behind a wall like she did last time, and she had no hood. Her face was framed with lustrous black curls and her eyes were a deep midnight blue. She mustn't have been more than twenty-five years old.

She looked strangely familiar.

"Your name is Marella?" she asked. When Marella nodded, she smiled too. "Tell me all you know about Sophie Foster, Fitz Vacker, Keefe Sencen, Dex Dizznee and Biana Vacker."

Bitterness started to rise in Marella's throat. She'd ignored Sophie and even befriended Stina. Because she was scared of her ability. Stina seemed like the evilest in Foxfire she could mix with - she'd assumed Pyrokinetics were always evil.

Was she?

Marella spilled all of her feelings and told Elodie all about Sophie - she and her friends had been missing for some time and the Council was on the prowl for them. Once or twice, some of the Councillors would visit Foxfire just to interrogate them about the missing prodigies. Marella expressed her worry for them yet she felt some relief. Elodie kept nodding.

"Okay, that's enough," she said, closing her eyes. Then she opened them again. "Do you hate Sophie?"

The question struck her like a bullet. Marella panicked. Did she hate Sophie? She didn't think so, but...

"No, not really," Marella told Elodie truthfully. "But I've bottled up some resentment for her because she keeps leaving me out of her 'Black Swan plans' and spending more time with her other friends and ignoring me."

Elodie nodded slowly, tapping her head thoughtfully. "If you needed to fight Sophie...would you?"

Bam. Another hurting question. Now...would Marella? If Sophie was doing something bad, Marella obviously would stop her, but if it was something that would save innocent lives...Of course she wouldn't. Marella told her exactly that. Elodie frowned, and Marella had a feeling she was dissatisfied with her answer.

After a while, Elodie leaned forward, sighing. "Listen, Marella. Coming here would already mean you're too involved in this to back out. We would have to force you to fight if necessary. Do you think Jin learned the easy way? She was just as stubborn as you once, refusing to believe or do anything. She's learned the hard way, and now she's one of our elite agents."

"But I don't want to be your agent." argued Marella. Elodie stood up, her eyes flashing.

"I'm sorry to say this, but you have no choice, no say, here. And one more thing: if you're missing Sophie, I have to warn you she's very near." Elodie closed her eyes again. "I'm not mesmerizing you - yet. You have twenty-four hours to decide, and there's only yes. Meanwhile, Jin will take you to...familiarize you with our ways."

Marella made up her mind that Elodie was seriously scary.

* * *

Marella had no idea why, but Jin kept kicking her. She seemed to enjoy kicking, so Marella kept punching her with a flame tucked secretly in her hand until Jin yelled at her and prohibited her to use her abilities.

"Wait till our leader comes back," she shouted. "He'll teach you how to control your Pyrokinesis and shut your mouth up for good too."

Well, Marella had nothing to say to that. Who was this leader? It was quite obvious he was a Pyrokinetic, but he couldn't be Fintan. A chill ran down her spine as she dodged Jin's angry attacks nimbly. She was the small one after all.

"Good job," remarked Jin, sweeping dust off her hands. "At least you're much better than that Moon-" She stopped herself.

"Moon what?" asked Marella suspiciously.

"Nothing," said Jin fiercely. "Absolutely nothing."


	39. Chapter 41

**Hey guys!Sorry for not updating in a while-I'm very busy-and I have a life, AN EXAM THAT'S SUPER IMPORTANT.**

**Yeah, easy for those on summer vacation.**

**I'll be putting this on hiatus soon.**

**Thanks to daringwolf2000 and mayazdeb for favouriting my story. You are AWESOME!Is mayazdeb the reviewer Maya?  
**

**And thanks a lot to Violet daughter of Percabeth for favouriting my story then undoing it. Thanks a lot,girl.**

**EVERBLAZE:My book's cool, huh?And yes,I COULD HAVE DRAWN MUCH BETTER but I didn't.'Cause I needed a lot of days just to colour that,dude!Uh...who's sb? **

**Kari2678:Awesome?Oh,thanks,you're so kind!I mean,I don't usually think Marella chapters are that nice. Thanks for reviewing!**

**ForeverFreeFall:I never thought Elodie was cool.I mean,maybe a little,but not that much. I'm so happy you found her super cool!When I laugh, I feel much better!Thanks for your reviews, and making me laugh!Have a great day too!  
**

**Anonymous:I'm SO happy to have another person who likes my story ,it's an awesome feeling.I think it's gonna mess when the real Neverseen comes out. Thanks for reviewing! **

* * *

Sophie was stunned. "_Me_, a _Keeper?"_ she asked incredulously. "How on Earth-?"

Mr Forkle shrugged. "Why not? You would be the best one yet, since you have an impenetrable mind."

She gave him a look.

"I do have one too but you're certainly more capable than me. I had my own potential tested by Councillor Terik too, and trust me, it wasn't as powerful as yours, not as divided."

"Oh yeah," she said, rubbing her arms. "What did he mean by divided?"

"Councillor Terik tested your potential?" asked Fitz. When Sophie nodded, he looked a little envious.

Suddenly, a loud rapping sound came from the wall on their left. The three of them jerked up, startled.

"Wha-?" Fitz gasped as a tiny crack spread from a tiny hole. "The Nev-"

Sophie pushed away from her chair and ran towards the commotion.

"Sophie, no!" Fitz shouted, but he couldn't stop her.

Sophie stuck her finger in the hole, pulled it out again - making it much wider - then put her eye to it. A wide smile stretched her lips, and she felt happier than she had before.

"Oh my! I-Ig-"

Mr Forkle grunted and gestured to Fitz. He looked at the cuff on his hand then gave it to Sophie. Sophie put it on her wrist and slapped the wall. Part of it crumbled and Sophie pulled a thing into the Telepathy Room.

A mess of stained, orange curls.

"Iggy," Sophie whispered as she hugged him. Iggy was covered in tiny leaves and sharp twigs. Dirt stained his fur. His curls were damp. Blood trickled down his figure.

But he had never looked better than now.

"Iggy, thank goodness you're safe. I..." Sophie's voice trailed off as she spied something - no, _two_ things - tied securely around both of Iggy's little feet. Sophie ripped the rope off and read the first note:

_Dear Sophie,_

_I know we can't write much because either the Council or the Neverseen will be watching us closely. But we need to get some message to you somehow, and that is why we sent Iggy to you, hoping that he'll find you._

_How's life there? Do they provide good care for you? Is it safe there? You don't need to answer any of those questions. Whatever you're trying to do with the Black Swan, remember: trust no one._

_No, not even yourself._

_Good luck._

_Love, Grady and Edaline_

Mr Forkle grunted. "I see those Ruewens are quite persistent in contacting their adoptive daughter."

The words 'adoptive daughter' stung, but Sophie blinked back her tears in vain and unfurled the second note. She was shocked.

_Project Moonlark,_

_So I see your little pet is going to join you too. It is quite stubborn, and managed to escape from me. It got lost many times, and one of my members told me that it scratched my fellow members in order to escape. It almost died. How sad. _

_I have to warn you. Don't think that just because you are with the Black Swan, you are safe. But I'll be safe. I have the luxury of time, power, and safety in the ogre cities, after all. You might look like Jolie, but you aren't - so don't think that I won't dare to hurt you because of that._

The note slipped from Sophie's clammy hands and landed on the floor. Fitz picked it up and stared at the threat. Mr Forkle stood there, biting his lip, deep in thought.

"Now we know that our enemies are closer than we thought."

The second after he spoke his last word, Jin came rushing in. Oh. She was Sora's twin. Then...

Jin's eyes glinted. "Sir Kerlof, you have some visitors waiting for you." Her midnight-blue cape was fastened with a triangle, crisscrossed and patterned with a familiar symbol...

Sophie gasped. The same one on Brant's in Jolie's photo in her room. Then...

Mr Forkle's eyes narrowed, and he pulled out a silver gleaming melder. Sophie and Fitz flinched at the sight of it.

Jin seemed unfazed. "Really? You know it's too late already. Even Sorajin wouldn't be able to undo the damage we're about to do."

Sophie and Fitz stiffened, their bodies poised. Mr Forkle's grip tightened on the melder, then he pointed it at Jin and pushed the trigger.

Time seemed to slow down as the melder shot caught on thin air as Jin vanished at the last possible second. Mr Forkle gritted his teeth, but he seemed focused on something.

Pain flooded Sophie as she screamed in agony when Jin suddenly reappeared behind her and kicked her in the back. Sophie hit the ground with a heavy thud. Adrenaline faded as pain started to creep up once again. Her body was rolled around to face Jin's face that looked so painfully like Sora, yet so different.

"You really did think that you had a chance of beating me?" taunted Jin. "I was holding back my full prowess when you were training with me. Even Lady Lundian didn't stand a chance for me."

All the breath was knocked out from Sophie. "You - you were the one who attacked Estelle?"

Jin smirked smugly. "Now, who else would it be?"

Fitz knocked her down from behind and she fell down too. Jin's dark aquamarine eyes met Sophie's brown ones as she said, "They're coming now."

The corrupted wall shattered into a million pieces as seven hooded figures with the mark of an eye barged in, all holding melders in their hands.

"For our mission to succeed, we did many things." Jin said. "We kidnapped an unregistered Pyrokinetic and forced her into submission. And now we are ambushing the Black Swan. How fun."

Mr Forkle shot her, and Jin's eyes went dim. "B-But, I'm going to survive. And my useless twin isn't." She dug her fingers into the wound and fished out the melder bullet, crying out in pain. Her movements were stiff now, and it took a long time for her to bring her two fingers to her neck and push. She cried out again, but then she could move as swiftly as before.

The Neverseen attacked.

"Get everyone here to fight," Mr Forkle shouted. "The war is in process."

"Really?" said a woman's voice who sounded strangely familiar. "The war has only just began." She smiled under her dark hood. "I wonder if my darling son is one of those fighters."

She uncovered her hood and shook out her blond hair.

Sophie and Fitz gasped.

Lady Gisela smiled. "Well, well, what do we have here? I miss Keefe. How he's doing here, huh?"


	40. Chapter 42

**EVERBLAZE: I do NOT know who sb is. T-t-t-team Neverseen?*wails loudly*Lady Gisela IS cool, if I think about it.**

**ForeverFreeFall:Hope you have a computer! Favourite stories?*blushes*Oh, you are way too nice!**

**Kari2678:Thanks thanks thanks for reviewing! And thanks for waiting patiently!(though i know nobody would be interested after the real Neverseen comes out.)**

**daringwolf2000:Thanks for loving this story! Here is your chapter and thanks for waiting! :)  
**

**Crazy keeper: About Lady Gisela, IKR?! She is super evil, but I kinda feel a little sorry for her too. Thanks for taking time to review!**

**Thanks to KittyJReilin for clicking the *favourite* button!**

**Ratio:Sophie's POV:Marella's POV,2:1. Okay with that? After the hiatus, my updating rate will probably be like 4/5 days per update,and honestly I know I'm being too kind.I'm not on holiday like y'all are and I have tons of homework and tons of exams to study for.*clears throat and speaks in a booming voice*This is Chapter 42, in Sophie's POV. Hope you enjoy it!  
**

Lady Gisela smiled at Sophie. "My son talks about you all the time. He would even endanger his life to join this elusive group with_ you? _Well, well. How sweet."

Sophie glared at her smug face. "Because his mother's too evil? What are you people doing here anyway?"

Keefe's mum flinched but quickly recovered. "Remember that man you so ruthlessly punched in the face, my dear?"

Fitz and Sophie gasped together. "Gethen?" They said in unison. Laindy Gisela nodded, and Jin struggled to get up. Gisela shot a look at her, then led the Neverseen out of the Telepathy Room. Mr Forkle shot at them but they dodged them efficiently.

Fitz cursed under his breath and hurried out of the door, trying to pursue them. A Neverseen whirled around and stood her ground, seeming to glare at Fitz. Fitz gasped and backed away.

"That'll teach you." Jin said haughtily as they stalked out.

_Sophie, Fitz, _Mr Forkle's mental voice rang into Sophie's mind._When we meet them again, Sophie and I will do a brain push on them and Fitz, you just push out your core energy. I'll gather all the Telepaths in the area and we'll try to push them off. I actually thought they wouldn't come back for Gethen. That elf is not worth going back for._

_How is he? _Sophie transmitted, her mind flashing back to the scene where she'd punched Gethen. Then her mind replayed the next scenes, and gasped loudly. _Mr Forkle, you're a Teleporter?_

Mr Forkle inclined his head slightly, and walked to the door, leaving Sophie's and Fitz's mouths hanging wide open.

Fitz smiled wanly at Sophie, then they ran out of the room, struggling to catch up Mr Forkle. The former Beacon was surprisingly very fast.

"Where are you going?" Sophie shouted, then tripped over a stone and fell down on her knees. She clutched them painfully. "Ow, ow, ow..." She complained. Fitz held her up gently and they continued running after Mr Forkle.

They winded down several twisting corridors and into two grave-looking metallic doors that were once bolted securely. Now, the padlocks hung broken across the dented surface.

"I can't believe they even managed to get through _this," _Mr Forkle muttered under his breath. "Estelle and I had underestimated them."

Fitz looked up, so did Sophie. It was the first time he had called Estelle by her first name. Tears burned Sophie's eyes as she picked out a loose eyelash, heading into the broken door.

The sight before their eyes shocked them thoroughly.

The room was completely made out of metal, making it feel scorching hot.**A/N:Metal, good conductor of heat.I did my studying.** Glowing chains hung from each of the four corners of the room, meeting one another at a crudely tied knot, the remaining chains hanging down toward the ground. They were wrapped securely around the arms and legs of a man in torn, ragged black clothing.

Gethen.

The Neverseen were crowded around him, yanking and pulling at the chains but recoiling at the touch of the glowing hot chains. When they withdrew their shaking hands back, Sophie noted that their palms and fingers were scorched and scarred.

These chains must have been special, probably hot enough to scald a person. Or maybe even burn him. This was the punishment for Gethen, Sophie realised. The chains burned him so he would be so pained that he could not focus on escaping.

But the agonised screams escaping from the Neverseen still made Sophie nauseous. She didn't like torture at all. She still remembered the first time when Bronte had inflicted on her; the cold ice rushing through her veins like a sandstorm. She shivered, rubbing her upper arms. Fire made her jittery.

Mr Forkle nodded at her and Fitz. Sophie took a deep breath and drew buzzing, powerful energy from the back of her mind, making her feel drained and weak. But she braced herself as she held the swirling vortex of energy in her mind. She could see Fitz and Mr Forkle shaking too.

_1, 2, 3. Now! _Mr Forkle shouted into their minds. Sophie bit her lip as she pushed the energy out of her mind with all her might, making it head toward the Neverseen - mostly Jin, because she didn't like her. And she didn't want to hurt Lady Gisela that much - she was Keefe's mother, after all - related by flesh and blood.

The Neverseen gasped, shrinking back, and dropping their melders. They were shaking. Sophie felt much better. The Neverseen was the one who had made her life miserable. The ones who really deserved Exile. Not like Prentice.

Rage swelled up with a lot more angry emotions as Sophie pushed the red out of her mind.

The Neverseen fell to their knees, clutching their heads. Sophie shook slightly, and did the same too. She'd done a brain push _and_ inflicting at the same time - and it really took a lot out of her.

The next thing she knew, a black wave was crashing over her mind as she passed out, completely oblivious to the shouts rousing around her.

* * *

"SOPHIE! SOPHIE!"

Sophie groaned and ripped open her eyes. The blinding lights made her jerk. She could barely make out iridescent glasses, with worried blue-grey eyes behind the shades.

Elwin.

"Ah, you finally woke up," remarked Elwin, a relieved look on his face. "You've been out for seven hours. Your friends were demanding to see you, except..."

"Except?" Sophie probed, a sinking dread in her heart. She still felt weak, fragile, and brittle.

Elwin bit his lip and looked down. "Except for Keefe. He didn't seem at all eager to see you. Instead, he even seemed...angry."

"Angry." Sophie echoed, dread coursing through her veins, turning her blood into ice. "Is he angry at...me?"

"I hate to say this, Sophie-"

"Then don't say it," Sophie cut him off sharply, tears brimming her eyes. She turned away. "Sorry." She sniffed, feeling sheepish.

Elwin patted her back gently. "Don't be. Your friends should be anytime here."

"Elwin?" asked Sophie. "What happened to Gethen? Did he escape?"

Elwin looked away, staring at the many bottles of medicine dotting the shelves. "I'm afraid he did." He said quietly.

Sophie caught her breath. They'd attacked the Neverseen, weakened themselves, and Sophie even inflicted on them - as a result, collapsed. And all for what?

_Nothing. Nothing. Nothing._

The word rang through her mind like a plague.

Sophie swallowed. "...It's my fault, isn't it? I inflicted on them, weakened myself, then let the Neverseen escape with Gethen. How did they unwrap the glowing chains anyway?"

"It's not your fault, Sophie. Even Mr Forkle admitted that it was indeed his fault for suggesting brain pushes. And about them unwrapping the chains, I can't believe we were that stupid. Fire is not immune to fire."

The door burst open, and Fitz, Biana, and Dex barged into the 'Healing Center'.

"Sophie!" Biana shouted. "We were so worried about you!" She pulled Sophie into a tight embrace. "I missed you so much. Ever since we'd joined the Black Swan, we'd been spending lesser and lesser time with one another." She shot a death glare at Mr Forkle standing behind her. He snorted, stalked out of the room and slammed the door.

Dex and Fitz squeezed her hands comfortingly.

Then Sophie remembered something. "Where's Keefe?"

Fitz's face fell. "He refused to go in."

"Something's bothering him," added Dex. "But I don't know-"

He trailed off as Keefe walked into the Healing Center all silent. He sat down on a chair, staring at Sophie. "How's your condition?" He asked coolly. No jokes, no sarcasm. Dex was right - something was indeed bothering him.

Sophie started talking. "Keefe, what's bothering you-"

Suddenly, a look of rage flashed across Keefe's face. He shot up from his chair. "You're one to talk!" He shouted, his eyes turning glassy and his hands curling into fists. Sophie and her friends shrank back.

"What - I don't-" Sophie tried.

"You really don't know? How ignorant you are," He snorted. Sophie flinched at the word 'ignorant'. "You hurt my mother severely! I just saw her. She was limping, and she looked drained out and tired. And it's because of you. It's because of you!" He whirled around to face Fitz, fury blinding his face. "And not forgetting you too!"

Hurt appeared on Fitz's face, but he said nothing.

"It's not like we did anything wrong!" Sophie shouted. "Mr Forkle told us to do so, and don't let it slip your mind: the Neverseen is evil! So is your mother!" Then she stopped herself. She'd really said hurting words.

Keefe sank down in his chair again, staring down at his shoes, his eyes containing some emotion Sophie couldn't distinguish.

"She's my family," He whispered. "Even if she's a witch." Only that he didn't say 'witch'.

Sophie looked away, her ears still pained from the swear word he'd used. Then Keefe stormed out of the Healing Center, leaving Sophie, her friends and Elwin in stunned shock.

Sophie buried her face into her palms - Fitz too. Tears slipped from her sore eyes as she cried her heart out.

Last time Biana got angry with her, then Dex and Fitz. Now, it was Keefe.

Sophie wondered if Keefe would ever understand how much hurt she was feeling right now.


	41. Chapter 43

**I just want to reply to the question raging from some reviewers:**

**HOW CAN YOU MAKE KEEFE BE SO MAD AT Sophie?Aren't you team Keefe?**

**Yeah, believe me or not, I still let's take Shannon Messenger's explanation(the one about Fitz) as mine, shall we?  
**

**I don't know why, but I just felt that I had to do ain't fair and isn't believable that the others were mad at Sophie before but Keefe didn't hate her. NO.**

**I have a feeling that Shannon Messenger is on Keefe's side too, but you know what?None of us want to do this-make a character super mad at things don't always go the right way(hint Fitz)and tempers are lost.**

**I quote from SM:**

_** "I know this might sound a little weird, but my characters are very real to me. I know their strengths and weaknesses, hopes and dreams, fears, regrets, and deepest, darkest secrets. And because I know them so well, I have to trust them. Even when it means letting them do something I don't like. Because that's the other thing we all have to keep in mind: characters aren't perfect. **_

_** Sometimes they do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, even feel the wrong thing. That's what makes them real. But it also means that sometimes we all want to scream, "NOOOOOOO!" as it's happening. And that's okay, because that's what makes the story interesting. It gives us something to root for, hope for, keep turning those pages to see how it all works out. And maybe sometimes it doesn't work out as well as we'd like. But that's okay, too, because it's something we can all relate to. Life is messy. Characters' lives need to be the same.**_

_** So in Fitz's case, yes, he was mean. And it was sad and wrong and we all want to yell at him for it. But he had to. Think about it. Overnight, he'd basically lost everything-and that's about 10,000 times harder for a character like him because remember, he's grown up in a world where things like that just don't happen. And while there are lots of ways he could've reacted, I knew in Fitz's case he was going to be angry. **_

_** So angry. **_

_** I also knew that his anger was going to be targeted at poor Sophie, because of the role she played (in *his* mind) in what happened, and that it was going to be this ugly, explosive thing. But I had to let it happen because I had to trust Fitz. I had to let him work through his grief in whatever ways he needed to. Only then would he be able to heal. And now that he has, he can start making it right."**_

**Yes, I know I ain't Shannon Messenger, I don't have characters that seem so real-I'm just 12, and an amateur writer who's not published yet. And Keefe did lose something very big. Think about it. His father seemed like he didn't love Keefe at all and then suddenly his mum turns out to be evil. If it was you, how would you feel? How would you feel if your best friend suddenly hurt your mum? You'll naturally feel angry at her, because even if she's evil, it's. Your. Freaking. MUM. Despite all you still love her.  
**

**And you want to defend her.**

**And I know that Keefe shook it off when Sophie hurt Lady Gisela in Everblaze, but remember at that time, he was still recovering from the shock that his mum was Neverseen. And now he's under a lot of stress, joining the Black Swan.(If you've read my fanfic you should know.)Then suddenly his mum pops up and the dramas happen.**

**Then all his bad emotions he'd been bottling inside would just...snap. And what makes it worse is when his friend injures his mother. **

**I know I'm explaining it very badly-but how do I tell you how I feel?I just...You probably hate me now, saying:"Oh my god, Xylia's a traitor to Team Foster-Keefe", but how do I explain? I just feel it's the right thing to do.**

**Wow, that was long. I would like to leave the dedications for this chapter into the next chapter. Thanks to all reviewers who reviewed and twinkletoestbh for reviewing four times.**

* * *

Marella was sulking in her room when Jin and another lady came in. Golden ringlets framed her sharp face and she looked strangely like Keefe Sencen. She was hobbling slightly and her leg was bandaged up.

"Are you Keefe's mother?" She asked. The elf frowned at her but nodded. Her eyes were strangely misty as she sat down beside Marella. Marella tensed up but didn't move, a small spark secretly catching in her hand.

Lady Gisela waved her hand. "Don't be scared of me and put off that flame now." Her voice, though cracked, was commanding, and Marella obeyed, extinguishing the fire in her hands.

"What...What happened to your leg, Lady Gisela?" Marella asked, her mind recalling Keefe's mother's name. Why was she here? Was she really part of the Neverseen?

Keefe's mother bent down and slowly caressed her swollen foot. Up close, her face looked old and weary. Though she had no wrinkles, her eyes were drooping and filled with an emotion that Marella could not distinguish.

"Some visitors are here to see you," was all she said as the door creaked open. Agonised cries rang through the room as three tattered figures came into view.

Lady Gisela's eyes turned glassy again as she stared at one of them. Without a word, she limped out of the room. Marella frowned and ignited a flame and shone the glowing yellow light on the three of them, washing away the shadows from them.

Marella gasped. "Sophie? Keefe?"

And more bitterly:

"Biana?!"

* * *

"Can you hear my voice this time?" Marella screamed. "It's me, okay? It's Marella!"

Sophie blinked slowly. "M...Marella? Why are you here?" Then her eyes narrowed, turning wary. "Are you part of the Neverseen? Then no, sorry. We're never becoming friends again."

Her words stung but Marella pushed her anger back, gritting her teeth. She glared at Biana. _"I got kidnapped by them, okay? I don't even know what is going on here!"_ She took a few deep breaths before she could burst into flames.

Unfortunately she did.

Sophie, Biana, and Keefe took a step back.

Keefe finally spoke. "Y-You're a P-Pyrokinetic?"

Marella smiled at him. "Is there a problem?" She asked smugly, feeling much better looking at their shocked expressions.

_What happened to you, Marella? You aren't bad._

Sophie's mental voice rang through her head like a plague, a million sharp needles pricking into her mind. Guilt trickled in her mind like shards of ice. She sank to her knees, biting her lip till she could taste copper.

"What are you doing to me?" Marella screamed, paralysed. Then the paralysis stopped and Marella could think again.

Keefe glared at Sophie and stalked to one side of the room, burying his face into the wall.

"What is wrong with him." Marella muttered weakly. Sophie helped her to her feet.

"Gosh, Mare, I'm so sorry."

"Don't use nicknames. You know I hate them." Marella nearly shouted at her, recalling what she had said to Sophie the first time they'd met. "Why are you all here anyway? Are Dex and Fitz with you too?"

Biana took Marella's hand, making her stiffen. Marella yanked her hand back as Biana flipped her hair and said, "Yes. We want to join the Neverseen because we feel that it is the best thing to do. We initially had joined the Black Swan but now we are most willing to quit. You know what they did?"

Marella gave her a strange look. "Uh, no? Duh."

Biana clenched her fists. "They made Sophie their little puppet."

"Okaaaaaay..."

"They controlled Sophie and forced her to do things that she didn't want to do. After some time we thought that they'd gone too far so we resolved for three of us to leave the organization, but Dex and Fitz will remain because we still want to know what the Black Swan is planning to do. We three will be Neverseen while they two will be Black Swan-"

"And how do you know we will let you do what you want?" A strong, lulling voice rang through Marella's room. Elodie came walking into the room, her hands on her hips.

Biana gasped. "You're that elf! You're the Mesmer!" Then her eyes went strangely dull as she looked down at her invisible legs.

Elodie frowned at her. "Yes, I am. So what? You already know even the Moonlark's adoptive father is no match for me."

"And how do you know that?" Keefe shouted from his corner.

Elodie smiled at him. "Sencen boy, you should be worrying about your mother and your friend instead."

Keefe's mouth gaped.

Elodie began to circle around him. "So poor. Your mother doesn't love you. You hurt your friend's feelings, despite knowing your own feelings for her-"

"OH, SHUT UP!" Keefe practically screamed at a smug Elodie.

"And Biana, you're so fierce and loyal. You'll do anything for your friend. Yet you can't, because something is bothering you" - Biana gasped, looking down at her legs again- "and you jolly well know it's because of me."

"What the hell did you do to me?" Biana shouted, looking up at the elf.

Elodie didn't answer but bent down and stared at Sophie. The young elf looked away at once, obviously trying not to look into the Mesmer's eyes.

"And you, young Sophie," she whispered. "Your head holds the most secrets." She smiled. "And what wouldn't we do to find out what they are."

Marella shuddered, a chill creeping down her spine.

"And because of that," Elodie suddenly declared happily, abruptly changing the mood, "we accept you three into the Neverseen."


	42. Chapter 44

**Thank you for understanding. Keefe and Sophie will reunite this chapter*cheers*, so I'm happy!**

**Chapter 42**

**Everblaze: Thanks for the bravo,dear. Yeah, Keester 4ever. See my explanation last chapter. ;)  
**

**ForeverFreeFall: I think you'd seen the last chapter? Oh well, thanks for reviewing and understanding! You are the best. ;)**

**Kari2678: Thank you! Update is here if you missed it.**

**daringwolf2000: I did! Hehe. Oh well. Sorry for that:).**

** pen. edge: It TOTALLY made me sad too, but...yeah. Woah, don't die just yet. Arguments will be resolved!**

**Crazy keeper: Your ultimate fear is right. Hate Keefe's mum? Yeah, I agree heartily on that too. :)**

**twinkletoestbh: Okay, you reviewed a lot of times(which I'm TOTALLY OKAY*cough*with), and thanks for reviewing! ;)**

**Chapter 43**

**daringwolf2000: YES! Motivation is the best thing on Earth(wow that was random)! Thanks for reviewing!  
**

**ForeverFreeFall: Man, Elodie IS cool, but I prefer Estelle(*cough*not biased of course*cough*)and love your reviews!**

**twinkletoestbh: Thanks for understanding! I know a lot of people will be unhappy with my choice, so..yeah.I know they're not the same but see my explanation and try to understand that...Well, about Marella, I guess we'll have to see!**

_**AND SINCE WE HIT THE 100TH REVIEW(woohoo!),I'll do something special, but I dunno what, any suggestions? (not too easy,not too hard.)**_

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! OMG, reviews make me so happy, ilysm.**

**And The Shadow Kitty for following me! Okay, that's so AWESOME. Thanks!**

* * *

Sophie sank back, lying on the cold hard ground. Keefe glanced at her and sat down one metre away from her. Biana swiveled her eyes back and forth, back and forth between the two of them. Then, finally making up her mind, she sat in the middle of the distance between Sophie and Keefe.

She broke the silence abruptly. "Um. When are you two going to stop ignoring each other and start squabbling and playing around like you always do? Seriously, this tension is breaking me down, and I can't resist it any longer if it goes on like this."

_I thought you liked Keefe, go to him. I'm alright alone._ Sophie transmitted into Biana's mind. Seriously, all she wanted was to be alone. The stress and the pressure was breaking her down too, and Biana didn't seem to understand.

Biana shook her head and left Sophie to her own thoughts again.

Keefe had sworn never to hate her. But now he did.

Sophie guessed promises just had to be broken.

A tear slipped down her cheek, running along her skin. Biana looked up, alarmed, Keefe too. He stared at her for a second too long, a pained expression on his face, but then he buried his face into his hands again.

Biana glanced at him, then directed her gaze back to Sophie. Her expression was deadly serious as she tugged Sophie to another corner of the room.

Sophie closed her eyes. "Concentrate."

Biana nodded hesitantly, then shut her eyes too. Sophie pushed her consciousness into Biana's mind.

_So, before we begin this pep talk, I have something else to tell you. Actually two other things. So. When Elodie said that she was manipulating me or something, what she said was true. She was controlling me in some way. And I know how._ Biana thought.

Sophie bit her lip to prevent gasping out loud-then transmitted into her mind: _What way?_

_I had nearly forgotten about my legs-which are still invisible. In my theory, I think that when we were in the fashion shop, Elodie-she was a Mesmer, remember?-mesmerized me. And somehow she must have been stronger than the other Mesmers-let's take Grady for example-because when my legs went invisible, I tried to make myself appear again, but failed to do so. It was like something urging me not to. At that time I didn't think too much of it, because I was scared. But now that I think of it, I'd been mesmerized before-and I know how it feels like. That time, it just felt like I was being mesmerized. But how could she have secured, like, let's say, a bond between the two of us to mesmerize me anytime and anywhere she wanted to? It seems impossible but I guess anything's possible with the Neverseen._ Biana thought.

Sophie sank back onto the wall, her mind fitting the jigsaw puzzles together. _Oh. But if your theory's correct, then why would Elodie even want to make your legs invisible? It must be for a certain reason. _She transmitted.

Biana shook her head. _That, I don't know. Maybe she has never done this thing before and wanted to test it out?_

_Maybe. _Sophie repeated. _So, what is the second other thing?_

Biana licked her lips. _It's about Estelle._

The name hit Sophie like a speeding bullet train. But she forced herself to pull herself together as she started to listen to Biana's revelations.

_I forgot to tell you guys this, but before you, um, inflicted on her, she was hurriedly scribbling something on a piece of paper. I took that and read it. It makes like half-sense. Should I read it for you?_

Sophie's heart was racing with excitement as she nodded her head.

_Jolie's decease connected to Root Abyss. Follow the pretty bird across the sky. Prepare for war. Find out the truth behind telepathy and use it to advantage. Neverblaze._

_Er. What does Neverblaze mean? _

_That's for you to figure out, Sophie._ Biana told her.

Sophie repressed a sigh with much difficulty.

_Whatever. Just get on with the...er..._pep talk.

Biana grinned. But it disappeared as she thought, _I know Keefe doesn't _hate _you. He's just having a super hard time. Bear with him._

_Easy for you to say, _Sophie scoffed as her mind flash backed to all her misconducts-her being kidnapped, manifesting several abilities, Fitz hating on her, calling her _damaged_, Bronte saying that she was _malfunctioning..._and so on and so on.

The list could go on forever.

Sophie had experienced more pain than the rest of her friends. She'd braved the Everblaze at least three times, and was forced to drug her family and let the Washers brainwash them-so that they didn't remember who she was already.

_Sophie! Are you listening! _Biana's mental voice rang through her mind, pulling her back from the rush of memories. _I know you'd experienced much, much, much more than anyone else-but Keefe hasn't. This is his first time that he's exposed to so much. Betrayal. Everything. I hope you would understand and forgive him, and I know he would too. You two can sympathize with each other-that's one of the reasons what friends are for. _

_I hope so. _Sophie transmitted, not feeling very optimistic.

Biana smiled, put her hands on top of Sophie's. "I know so."

* * *

Sophie sat beside Keefe, hesitating. He flinched when she did. "Keefe, I'm sorry I called your mum evil. You can hate me all you want, but I still hope we can be friends-"

"Wow, I didn't realize I needed your permission." Keefe snapped, looking at her. He looked away at once.

Sophie ignored him, sticking to the script that she'd rehearsed (it was a similar one to the one for Fitz's) . "I-"

Keefe snorted, burying his face into his knees.

Then something in Sophie snapped. She stood up abruptly, making Keefe look up in alarm. She hoped he could feel the hurt and anger that she was experiencing now.

"You know what?" She said, slowly and angrily, steam rising inside her. "If you don't even have the decency to pay attention to me, then forget it. You're having a hard time, that I cannot deny. But you know what again?_ I _am the one who's experienced so much pain-even the most sympathetic person wouldn't fully understand my pain. The list of terrible things that had happened to me could go on and on-would you like to hear it? No, right? Then stop acting like a pathetic person who has already given up because of one single horrible thing that happened to you. I've much worse." She gritted her teeth, spinning on her heel to stalk away.

Before she could, a strong hand grabbed her arm.

Sophie whirled herself to face Keefe. Her eyes softened as she met Keefe's ice blue ones.

_**A/N: And no,that isn't the cue to kiss. *belching sounds***_

He pulled her into a tight embrace, wrapping his arms around her waist. Sophie could hear him cry.

Sophie returned his hug just as warmly, patting his back gently. "Everything's going to be fine." She reassured him, though she wasn't as convinced as she sounded.

And she was right.

"Or not," a familiar voice taunted as Marella stepped into the gloom, a blazing sphere of flames in her hands.


	43. Chapter 45

**Hi, guys!Sorry for not updating. It's been nothing but relationship problems, and tons and tons of exam mock papers-I'm ready to throw up anytime.**

* * *

**IMPORTANT**

**But SERIOUSLY, do you all even READ the notes that I write? I bet half of you don't. And since NOBODY answered my question last chapter, me and copicrazeunwoltxnaa(author of Swan Song) are working together to write something. BUT WE NEED ADVICE. PLEASE. SOMEONE.**

* * *

**Guest: Thanks! I dunno if I'm gonna update Hp soon or not,probably the latter! :'|**

**ForeverFreeFall: Well...you'll find out in this chapter!Yes, just Keefe, though I have no fictional or reality crushes. o_O Though Sophie should really end up with him!They're so cute together!But I think Shannon will put them together, because I have that FEELING. In Everblaze she even put their ship name there(Keester).Heheeee.  
**

**daringwolf2000:IKR!?It's very veerrryy annoying when they just... !**

**Readergirl6262: Okay, I don't know what you're talking about(me not updating for a while ago)but I checked the last two chapters and the updating interval was 4-6 days, so... and Fitz are in the BS base and Sophie, Keefe, Biana went to NS as double agents. Thanks for reviewing!  
**

**Kari2678: Yay! I'm so so so so so glad you liked it! :D**

**This chapter is definitely NOT my best, but it'll have to do.**

Keefe grabbed Sophie's and Biana's hands, pulling them backwards, his eyes trained warily on Marella, who was poised to throw the fireball in her hands right at them. "What are you trying to do?"

Marella looked bemused for a second, then said slowly, "Uh, I'm going to attack you. What do you mean?"

Keefe rolled his eyes. "No, that's not what I meant. What are you going to achieve by hurling a pathetic light ball-"

Biana cut him short. "She is not a Flasher, please. A Pyrokinetic, from the looks of it. Wow, I never imagined Marella Redek to be that. Our enemy." She laughed bitterly, wiping a smudge off her face, the warmth of the fire heating up her cheeks.

Sophie narrowed her eyes at Marella, her mind flashing back to when Brant was holding up a fireball too. Except that it had been Everblaze at that time.

Marella snapped, "Oh shut up, Biana. I came to join the Neverseen for a reason."

"Looks like it was the wrong reason." Keefe retorted.

Marella shut her eyes, the sphere growing bigger and hotter. Sophie sensed impending danger at once. She had to do something before Marella got out of control.

Sophie looked down at the fancy costumes that she and her friends were wearing.

Keefe's was a simple brown tunic with yellow tarnished metal buttons with a cape that almost reached down to his knees, pinned securely by the Sencen crest.

Sophie's was a tight turquoise top that was hard, unlike normal fabric. It covered a white, frilly, wavy dress that reached down to her thighs. A hunter green cape, maroon leggings and black boots completed the outfit.

She looked like an idiot whereas Biana looked pretty in her own clothes, a purple top with long sleeves, black shirt, a gold belt, and dark pants that reached down to her ankles. Biana had a strange and mysterious-looking cuff worn on one of her sleeve, just behind the sleeve cuff.

It was so much more than decoration.

It was a secret communication tool given to them by the Black Swan to report anything amiss or important.

They didn't mention finding help, but Sophie guessed it was worth a try anyway. Sophie gathered her core energy, working quickly so Marella couldn't hurt them, pushed at the clasp on Biana's wrist. The bracelet clicked open and Sophie directed it to her, watching the cuff float secretly in the air, hiding behind the shadows so Marella wouldn't see it.

Biana gasped and looked at Sophie. Sophie shook her head and transmitted into her mind, _Don't say anything._

Biana's lips pursed into a straight line and gave the slightest nod, whispering into Keefe's ear.

Marella grew angry and irritated when she did that, holding up the flames over her head, ready to strike.

Boy, did she look intimidating.

Sophie whispered, "Help." into the receiver.

When she looked up, she saw Keefe pushing Biana away from Marella, who threw the fireball at them. It missed them by a few centimeters, setting the ground on fire.

Sophie grabbed her friends and ran, shouting "Root Abyss" into the cuff, which was strangely glowing blinding white.

Marella chased after them, already conjuring another bright flame in her hands, a glint in her eyes. But when Sophie looked back, there was something else in her eyes that Sophie managed to distinguish.

Sadness.

* * *

They arrived at the Root Abyss, where strong water sprayed into their faces, blinding them for a split second.

Marella's bright flame started to flicker, then went out completely. She howled, sending a blue shock through her palms. Blue fire sprang out, dancing in the slight drizzle.

"Oh great, now it's Balefire," Keefe muttered, "Next, what would it be? Everblaze?"

Biana shot him a look. "I don't think Balefire is that dangerous." She had to shout over the roaring sound of the stormy raging water inside the round chasm. "Oh, look what she's doing." She pointed up.

Sophie and Keefe exchanged a glance, then looked up at the swirly pillars. They went in pairs, surrounding the corridor circling the chasm of water. In the middle of two pillars, Marella would send a sphere of glowing Balefire flying in. The spheres stayed in the center like a typical fantasy story.

"Why is she doing that anyway?" Sophie shouted, looking down at her wrist again. It was glowing bright green.

Then a message appeared on the screen. Sophie almost sobbed in relief when she saw the two glowing words.

_We're here._

* * *

Two figures appeared in the shower.

Two _identical_ figures.

"Here we go again," Keefe announced as Sora and Jin stepped out.

Sophie squinted at them. "Which is which? I can't tell. And why is Jin here too, anyway?"

Sora or Jin snapped at her, "I don't answer to you, Moonlark."

Keefe said, "Okay, that's the grumpy one for sure."

Sora smiled. "She is grumpy." she said, diving down before Jin could kick her in the shin. "So you needed my help?"

"Yes," said Sophie. Sora looked at Marella, her eyes flickering up at the Balefire. She shrugged. "That doesn't make any difference."

"That's what you think, _sister." _Jin hissed loudly. Sora sighed and snapped her fingers. The earth rumbled and a crack appeared, making its way toward Jin. Jin, taken aback, got one leg stuck into the crack.

Jin whispered loudly to Marella, "Child, go back and inform Gisela-"

Keefe stiffened and yelled, "Oh great, now my mum wants to come here too!"

Jin ignored him and held Marella's gaze silently. After a while Marella nodded timidly and raced to the double doors and exited.

Sora looked at her twin sister with a sad expression. Then the earth swallowed Jin back onto ground. They started a fight so intense that no one was able to distinguish who was who.

Sophie darted around frantically, suddenly missing Biana. Where was she?

The air behind one of the twins shifted, and Biana appeared silently, pushing her toward the edge of the chasm.

Then one more heave, and she was gone. A scream echoed around the walls, then there was a horrifying splat like she'd landed on the water-and no one knew who was she, Sora or Jin.

A sound behind them forced Sophie, Keefe, and Biana to look behind them, and in that instance Sophie knew that Biana had made the wrong choice.

It was Sora who Biana had pushed into the Root Abyss.

* * *

**OMG! I'm actually scared for Sora (although I know exactly what will happen...).  
**

**So, question: What do you think will become of Sora? Alive, or...dead?**


	44. Chapter 46

**Ok, I am officially going to make this story all Sophie POV. Honestly I'm tired of writing other people's POVs.(Sorry Grady-Edaline-Marella.)**

**Okay, since ForeverFreeFall requested a Keester story, a Keefe and Sophie story it shall be! Now I am totally-positive that 1/2 of you don't read author's notes. :/**

**The story should be coming soon. Like 4-5 days. But we make no promises, 'cause...exams.  
**

**And can you believe it? In two days time it's gonna be the 50TH BIRTHDAY OF SINGAPORE! WOOHOO! *screams in excitement*Being an engaged Singaporean, of course. 50th Jubilee...YAY! **

**Kari2678: Hmm...I can't say if you are right or wrong. DUH, OBVIOUSLY I KNOW WHAT IS HER FATE. Sorry. Sorry for all the suspense! ;) Thanks and here is your update!**

**ForeverFreeFall: Fortunately I am not working for Neverseen. :P Well. I love your positive attitude and trust me when I say I am not completely evil! And you are the only one who seems excited about the co-writing. Or maybe the others don't read the notes. :/**

**daringwolf2000: I feel as about dreadful as you, y'know...I REALLY REALLY want to spit the truth out about her living or not, but I've got to keep my lips zipped. *zips mouth***

**A person: Love your 'Then Jin's gonna die (I hope)' attitude! Well I need to keep my mouth shut, not spilling the secret.**

**Thanks to ForeverFreeFall for following this story! :D You're an awesome writer and reviewer!**

* * *

Sophie glared at Biana, suddenly feeling hate filling her body. Jin was going to die because of Biana...because of her, because of her...

She felt her vision dim and she let out a scream.

Strong arms held her up as she shook against his chest. "Shh, Sophie, it's okay," Keefe soothed, wrapping his arms around her waist gently.

Now it was Biana's turn to glare at both of them.

A sigh could be heard escaping from Jin as she gave them a look. "Are you done? We need to head to Gethen."

Sophie glared at her. "So you are not even the slightest bit concerned about your sister's fate? How tragic and devastating. No wonder Sora's so ashamed of you that she didn't want us to know about her relationship with you!"

Keefe declared, "Even my father could do better than you." Biana just glared at her, her chocolate-brown curls wet by the spray.

Jin frowned at all of them. "That Sora. She'll be all right. She always survives; a strong girl alright. Now, can we?" She seemed slightly annoyed at their confrontations.

Anger buzzed in Sophie, but she gritted her teeth and tried to push it back as they followed Jin out of Root Abyss. Sophie kept looking back at the chasm, hearing the pounding water in her head, then imagining Sora drowning in the raging pool and nobody ever seeing her again...Sophie shook her head vigorously and tried with great effort to get the picture out of her mind.

They followed Jin up a winding staircase, and Sophie was again reminded of Estelle, leading Sophie down a similar flight of steps, before she...Sophie blinked her eyes numerous times, trying to prevent the guilt from cracking her mind.

_She must stay strong._

She kept her eyes wide open, her photographic memory memorizing every small detail of where they were going. Sophie was surprised that the Neverseen was so open about their location-it seemed too good to be true, but Sophie knew it _had _to be true.

Jin kicked a door open with the tip of her boot and led them in. A man with scars streaking all over his body was waiting for them, a slight smirk plastered on his face-Keefe could do better.

Sophie was reminded about Brant-_Brant, _the Pyrokinetic that Fintan was guarding so closely, the Pyrokinetic who'd killed Jolie, the woman he loved, the Pyrokinetic who had hurt her and Dex so much, the Pyrokinetic who had escaped into the ogre cities and Sophie couldn't follow him there.

The Pyrokinetic who'd threatened to wipe out the entire species of humans.

Gethen's crackly voice snapped Sophie out of her broody thoughts. "Well, well," Gethen said, staring at her with venom and spite. "If it isn't Sophie Foster, the elf who had dared to punch me in the face."

"Gethen, the guy who showed up at my human house posed as a jogger and tried to take me away but failed. And not forgetting the fact that a dog bit your hand." Sophie retorted.

Keefe cracked up. "Nice one, Foster!"

Gethen glared at him. "One more from you, Keefe Sencen, and you're going to get it from Jin."

Jin frowned. "I haven't agreed to do that yet." Catching Gethen's unappreciative look, she shrugged and said, "Please go on with your speech."

He rubbed his hands together and opened his mouth to speak. "Kerlof was there to protect you and you would have ended up here one year ago if not for him. But let's stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point. I'm sure you've heard about our plan to wipe out the humans completely." Biana gave him a dirty look. Gethen ignored it and continued rambling on. "Brant is still in the ogre cities with our master-"

"Please, Gethen, SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Jin snapped loudly, shutting her eyes. Sophie, Keefe, and Biana flinched at her loud voice. So did Gethen, and his face contorted even more after a moment.

Then he said, "Fine, Jin, fine. But I'm warning you: even if you are the most important here, remember who's the one that gives orders. So, children. I guess that was nothing" - ("Oh, nothing alright," Keefe scoffed, quiet enough not to let Gethen hear it, though Jin did raise her eyebrows at him) - "and let's continue. Brant is still in the ogre cities and he should be coming back any time soon, but we need to fetch him. That okay to reveal Jin? Okay. After he comes back our plan will start to unravel."

_So will ours, _Sophie thought, thinking back to their well-rehearsed scheme that had been drilled into the five children by Soreas. _That's when we'll break into Exile and heal Prentice._

She looked up and saw Jin staring at her. Sophie, startled, glared at her until Jin looked away.

"And when our plan starts to unravel, the two worlds will collide. The humans will discover the elves again-"

Biana let out a shocked yelp.

"-and war will start between the two species. And obviously, the elves will win and the humans shall perish."

* * *

Sophie stared into blank space, stunned. Biana was shaking her head vigorously, curling and uncurling a lock of her hair anxiously. Keefe was running his fingers through his already messy hair, disheveling it even further.

Jin walked up to Gethen. "Now, children, don't be shocked. Since you are part of Neverseen now, you'll also join in our plans. And of course, join in the fight against humans."

Nausea hit Sophie like a speeding Maglev train. "B-But...but..." She managed to stammer. Jin arched an eyebrow at her.

"But what? If you chose to join us, you should've known the consequences. Elodie knew you three weren't really capable of doing any evil, even if she controls and brainwashes you. Because you're _good people. _Good people can't do bad things unless they're really, really hurt and want revenge, that sort of thing. But bad people _are_ capable of doing good things too.

"It all depends on your opinion, you know. Even if we're evil, we think that doing this is a good thing! Because it's our opinion that this will benefit the world. But on the other hand, good people think differently and think otherwise. That's the reason. That's why I don't know why the Black Swan would control Sophie; make them her little puppet. It just doesn't make sense! And when I tried to tell that Elodie Talle that, she didn't listen and-"

"Wait," Sophie said, Jin's words sinking into her mind. "Did you just say Elodie _Talle? _As in Lady Cadence _Talle?"_

Jin looked surprised. "_Of course _I mean that. Didn't you know Elodie was Cadence's younger sister?"


	45. Chapter 47

**Hi guys. I might not be able to update as often because I have: 1)Mock exams,2)Prelims,3)THE-REAL-DEAL EXAMS.**

**Sorry. Maybe I'll do-ON HIATUS-soon...**

**Madison Keilty: THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm a wannabe author, so...yeah! :)**

**ForeverFreeFall: Three mentions is awesome! And thanks for reading author notes! I dunno why I wanted Elodie to be Lady Cadence's sis but it's me I'm weird.**

**TeamFitz: Oh, thank you! I'm so so so glad that I have awesome reviewers!**

**A person: I don't really know what you mean by a moment for Sophie, but I'm so happy that you reviewed again! It certainly made my day!**

**Kari2678: Updated! Thanks! I dunno if you like cookies but I send you one(virtual, sadly) for reviewing almost every chapter! (::)**

**Thanks to ConnieHai, TeamFitz, keeperofthelostwhovian for following/fav my story! :)  
**

**And yes, I didn't notice until like a few days ago that Keeper Of The Lost Cities:Neverseen by Xylia Neo is in a community by twinkletoestbh, along with Power Freak by lostkeeper and Kotlc React by Skydancer8! Thank you, thank you! And I became one of the staff with ForeverFreeFall :P. It's called The Best of the Kotlc Fandom, go check it out for fun if you're bored.**

The words sank into Sophie's mind like quicksand. Pictures of Lady Cadence and Elodie flashed through her head, comparing the similarities and differences, wondering why she hadn't spotted resemblances earlier.

Jin watched her as she struggled for words. Sophie's friends looked just as shocked. And Sophie knew why.

"B-But they don't even _look alike!" _ Sophie blurted out, feeling ridiculous.

Lady Cadence. Elodie. Sisters. The only similarities they had were the raven-black hair and the smug smile. That was all. Anything that anyone else could have. And even though Sophie didn't like Lady Cadence that much too, she was good. Not like Elodie.

And Elodie was a Mesmer, totally sticking out from a family of Conjurers. It seemed so strange, so unnatural...

Jin harrumphed loudly. "Please! Cadence doesn't even _know_ Elodie, much less knowing that she has a sister. They're what you call long-lost sisters. And siblings don't _need_ to look that alike. Elodie's parents know about her, but when she went 'missing', they were traumatized. So when Cadence was born into the world, they resolved not to tell her anything. Thus Cadence doesn't know about Elodie, but Elodie knows about her. And they have a bond that Elodie created."

Sophie and Biana exchanged a look, remembering about their secret telepathic conversation. Sophie pulled out a loose eyelash out of instinct.

Jin caught it and smiled coldly. "Yes, Elodie created one between her and Miss Vacker too. Smart, aren't you, to figure it out. That's why your legs are invisible. She willed you to make it that way. It's for a reason, you know."

Biana looked like she wanted to pounce on Jin but decided against it, biting her lip.

The Neverseen girl laughed, playing with her wavy auburn hair. Once again, Sophie was hit with a series of pictures of Sora. And Sora was probably somewhere in the water now, her fate unknown, she probably had...

Jin's sharp voice snapped Sophie out of her morbid thoughts.

"We're getting sidetracked. Elodie created a bond between her and Cadence, the kind of one she would call a "Mesmer Bond". But the other Mesmer-your adoptive father Grady, can't do that because he doesn't know that such an ability exists, much less know how to do it. The Mesmer Bond is something only Elodie can do. It creates a link from Elodie to a person that wouldn't know that she linked him or her. With this bond Elodie practically can mesmerize the person anytime and anywhere she likes without having the person look right into her eyes. Practically invincible, I would say."

Sophie's blood ran cold. _Invincible._ Even Grady couldn't beat Elodie?

Jin crossed her arms and stared at Sophie, though she seemed a thousand worlds away.

"I presume that Grady and Elodie will have a match. If they ever meet." Keefe echoed, a look of impishness in his face. Biana glared at him, giving him a look that seemed to say, _this isn't the time to think about bramble matches or whatever you boys are obsessed with._

Jin smiled widely, a look of both amusement and seriousness on her face. "But oh, they will _definitely_ meet when we're at war." Leaving them stunned, Jin held Gethen's gaze for a second too long. Gethen nodded quietly and exited the room.

Sophie observed all this with a thoughtful mind. Was Jin a Telepath? Or maybe even the Telepath that Estelle and Mr Forkle had warned them about?

Anyway, breaking into Exile was one thing. Breaching Jin's mind was another.

She broke a lot of rules. She mused about that, then before she could change her mind, Sophie opened her mind to Jin's.

* * *

A buzzing sound came out when Sophie's mind got in contact with Jin's. Sophie was taken aback by surprise as Jin's mind buzzed, emitting heat. Then suddenly, Sophie was yanked back to consciousness painfully.

She jerked her head to look at Jin, who looked the most pitiful from the time when Sophie had first met her to now. Beads of perspiration were trickling down the sides of her cheeks slowly and she was panting.

Her aquamarine eyes met Sophie's. "You-you..." Jin said, her eyes scanning Sophie frantically. "You know now."

Keefe demanded, "What?" He crossed his arms in a sort of amusing way. But Jin hardly noticed him as she stared at Sophie.

Biana caught up and said, "Sophie read her mind. She so read her mind. And she found out something terrible. I think."

Sophie shook her head vigorously. "No. No, I didn't read her mind. I _couldn't."_

Keefe and Biana gasped.

Keefe shook Jin's shoulders hard. Jin didn't defend herself. She just stared at him with blank, cold, unfeeling eyes. "What are you? Almost nobody gets past Foster's awesome mind!" Biana voiced her agreement rather loudly, fingering the clasp on her wrist. Her fingers swirled around the cool glass screen.

Jin seemed to regain her smugness and said, "Almost." And shook her head. "Almost."

Sophie said, "You're a Telepath. _The_ Telepath. The one that can defeat me. The one that _will_ defeat me."

Jin's eyes hardened into steel. "Yes. But not now."

Just then, three nets fell down from the ceiling and captured Sophie, Keefe, and Biana.

Before Jin could even scream, they were hauled one floor up. Sophie shook as she plucked out another eyelash and watched it flutter to the ground. The cold metal cut into her legs and she screamed.

"Help! HELP!" She yelled, her throat turning hoarse.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Foster!" Keefe hissed. "Can't you see it's not the bad dudes that are capturing us?" He peered through the hole and called out, "Yo, Technopath, these electrical nets aren't really comfortable. Maybe you can improve on that."

A grumble could be heard, then a loud snort. "Are you not grateful that we didn't leave you behind here in this horrible place? Maybe we should just dump you back and let that stupid Sora replica torture you."

Sophie's spirit lifted as she figured out who it was. "Dex! DEX! You're here-"

Dex shushed harshly, not looking at her. "We need to leave and shut your mouth."

Hurt, Sophie said nothing and just sulked as she sat on the hard metal quietly, thinking. Dex wasn't right to give her a cold shoulder. Had he experienced worse? No he didn't. And Sophie had been the one angry at him before...Something must have happened to make him act like a brat to her.

A quiet voice spoke out, "Dex's angry at you because you left Sora to possibly drown in the chasm." Fitz. Sophie's eyelids drooped.

Dex snorted again. "Yeah. If Biana hadn't pleaded me to rescue you guys I wouldn't have come here pulling Wonderboy along." He glared at Fitz. Fitz looked hurt.

Anger rose in Sophie. Couldn't Dex tell that they were trying their very best? Why was he so...unsatisfied with them?

"Where are we? Why aren't the Neverseen catching us?"

Dex laughed bitterly. "You explain, Vacker."

Fitz scowled-Fitz didn't scowl, he must be really annoyed with Dex-and said, "We're in the tunnel that has two passageways-one to the Black Swan base and the other to the Neverseen base, if you recall. The thing is-when we stopped in front of the Neverseen door, it was just _an opening. _No door. Nothing to secure the place. The door was lying on the ground and there were ashes and burn marks."

Sophie's mind clicked. "Marella. It _has _to be Marella."

Dex sounded genuinely curious as he asked, "Why Marella?"

"You don't know?"

They shook their heads, confusion blooming on their faces.

Sophie looked at the scar on the back of her hand as she said quietly, "Marella's manifested and she's a Pyrokinetic."

A collective number of gasps rang through the tunnel.

"Okay, I know it's shocking but can we discuss it later? So what if we're in the tunnel? The Neverseen could still chase us." Biana contradicted.

Dex laughed, a real one. "Oh, it's thanks to a device that I invented. It blocked the way out of the base, and it's as hard as diamond-"  
"No." Keefe said, all serious. " They could still use piquatine-"

Light suddenly lit up their way-

"-And they could use Everblaze too." Keefe finished, looking back nervously.

"You really think they would-" Biana started, but her sentence was never finished as a neon-yellow flame burst out behind them, glowing brighter and growing bigger and wilder by every second.

Everblaze.

"RUN!" Sophie yelled as loudly as possible as the nets released her, Keefe, and Biana and the five friends set off as fast as their legs could carry them.


	46. Chapter 48

**This chapter is more emotional than the other chapters-in shorter words, the most emotional chapter that I've ever written. So...*falls silent* **

**Character development included. I think.**

**ForeverFreeFall: Yay! I'm so glad you liked it, I hope you like this chapter because it's unlike anything I've ever written before...:/**

**Guest(at Chapter 36): Everyone likes Keester. Including me. But...yeah...I just had to do it. You choose: A) Because I'm evil, or B) I'm an author and authors need to trigger some fights between the characters. I really hope you choose B.**

**A person: Thanks for clarifying! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

A hand grabbed the five of them and whisked them into a dark room before the flames caught them. Sophie rolled over, huffing and panting, sweat trickling down her neck. The others looked just as exhausted.

Sophie pulled out a loose eyelash and willed herself not to black out as she surveyed the room with her eyes. Wait, they were back into the Black Swan base, back to the room where thy had first met Soreas and Sora. Speaking of Sora...her stomach went cold as she plucked another eyelash from her eyes, which were starting to grow wet as hot tears burned her eyes.

Everything was so messed up, so muddled, so wrong. If everything was alright, if she was just a normal, happy elf and the Black Swan and the Neverseen never existed, her life would be so peaceful, unlike what her life was now. There was so many things to do, yet so little time to accomplish them all. What if she couldn't heal Prentice? What if she couldn't save Sora? What if she couldn't play her part in defeating the Neverseen? What if she couldn't defeat Jin in a Telepathy battle? And worst of the worst: what if she let down everyone in the world she loved so much?

Sophie could still see Grady's and Edaline's warm, proud faces as they looked at her with smiles on their faces. They still loved her even if she wasn't _her_. wasn't Jolie, wasn't her biological daughter. Alden. Della. Kesler and Juline. Even Lord Cassius. What if she couldn't stop the Neverseen from doing what they want to do-wipe out the entire species of humans? And they would have to join in the war between elves and humans. What if they couldn't resist against the humans and...died?

And it would be all her fault. Sophie knew Mr Forkle-Master Leto, whatever his name was, Estelle, Soreas, Sora, and even Madlen never said that she, Project Moonlark, Suldreen, would be their only hope, their saving grace, but deep down inside Sophie's heart and theirs, she _was_ their only hope.

Then her mind wandered off to the people who had struggled so much to keep the world in peace and harmony but eventually failed when evil conquered good. Jolie. Kenric. Estelle. If Sophie failed too, what hope would be left? Even Silveny wouldn't be able to restore hope like she had once. That was why the Black Swan had created her. To save the world. It all sounded silly, but Sophie knew it was true.

She wasn't going to let down Jolie, Kenric, or Estelle. They deserved something very good after all their dying efforts. Sophie's heart ached when she thought of them, the fire that killed Jolie, the Everblaze that killed Kenric, and the ogre weapon that had murdered Estelle. She recalled a conversation between Estelle and her that she had never really thought fully about:

_"Estelle, why do all the good people die? Jolie, Kenric. Why wouldn't the Neverseen take their place? Why do they always win in the matter of life and death?"_

_"You're in a garden filled with flowers, nothing but flowers. There are pretty flowers and there are ugly-looking flowers. Let's say if you just had to pick one, which one would you pick?"_

_"The pretty ones..." Sophie trailed off when she saw the horrible truth._

_"Exactly." Estelle said sadly, staring wistfully at blank space._

Tears slipped down her cheeks once more but this time, Sophie wiped them off fiercely and set a mindset.

_If I'm going to make everyone proud, I need to be strong. _She thought determinedly.

_No more hesitating. _

_No more picking of eyelashes._

_No more crying._

_No more feeling guilty._

_Starting right now, I'll be strong._

_I'll fight._

_For real._

* * *

Sophie clenched her fists, determination rising inside of her. She looked at her friend's tired, weary, injured faces and felt a little of the old her rising inside of her again. She pushed it down fiercely and resisted the urge to cry as she walked over to them, her boots clicking loudly in the silence. She knelt down, squinting in the dim lights as she shook each of them awake, trying not to look at the soot and ashes that gathered around their cheeks.

"Wake up, Fitz. Wake up, Dex. Wake up, Keefe. Wake up, Biana. We have to go."

They grumbled and moaned, flicking her hands off. Sophie gritted her teeth as she tried to keep her calm. "Wake up, or else the Everblaze will get us again!" She raised her voice, agitated, and those six words 'the Everblaze will get us again' were enough to make their eyes fly wide open and jump to their feet.

Sophie looked at them. "Someone pulled us to safety and we're back in the Black Swan base. We have no time to lose. We need to find Master Leto and Soreas to discuss about the current situation."

She spoke each word clearly and confidently, and her friends looked weirdly at her.

"Excuse me, but what did you do to the old Foster?" Keefe asked suspiciously.

Sophie said, "I decided that I have to be stronger in order to survive." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she stared at them. "Please. I need to. I'm Project Moonlark. And don't forget about J-Jolie, K-Kenric, a-and...Estelle. We _have_ to do them proud. At least, _I_ have to do them proud."

They just gaped at her. Sophie scowled. "Well, let's not waste time, let's go." With that she walked to the double doors and swung them open, leading the way through the corridors. Her friends exchanged glances, and followed her obediently.

Frankly, Sophie had no idea where she was going.

She was just going to be the bravest she could and try her best.

Luckily, Soreas saved her before she got lost through the winding corridors-ironic for her, since she had a flawless photographic memory.

Soreas's eyes were red and puffy, like he'd been crying. Well, he deserved to. His sister could be dead and he wouldn't know.

"We need to talk to you," Sophie said, her voice suddenly hoarse.

Soreas's aquamarine eyes flickered across her and her friends. He seemed to have decided something as he said, "Follow me. Sir Kerlof will be there too, to hear what you have to say. Like you have anything new to report to us."

"What?" gasped Sophie.

Soreas rolled his eyes, a little of his sarcastic self returning to him. "Don't you know that we've been watching your every move when you were at the Neverseen? You should be glad, because Elodie was planning to get rid of you all if Sora didn't come to save you. But s-she shouldn't have." He said, his voice suddenly turning ragged.

Biana, Keefe, and Fitz looked uncomfortable. Soreas forced out a curt laugh. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologise," Sophie said quietly, "I know how you feel-"

Soreas whirled around to face her. Sophie tried not to flinch. "You don't, okay? J-Just leave me alone!" He shouted as he stormed through the halls and into a dull grey door. Sophie bit back an insult. Of course she knew how he felt. Did she? She wondered, and her conviction started to crumble away. She didn't have to see her sister possibly die, so she guessed...she didn't know how he felt.

Master Leto and Madlen sat on one of the cold, hard stone benches. Master Leto showed no emotion on his face, whereas Madlen was sniffling away, dabbing delicately at his eyes with an embroidered handkerchief.

"Two losses in less than half a year..." He murmured sadly, his face morbid. Master Leto glanced at him, but he showed no sympathy or pity. Sophie started to grow annoyed. Didn't he know how to feel? But when Sophie looked into his eyes, she knew he was trying to hold his emotions back. She recalled what he had said to her when he was still the Beacon of the Silver Tower:

_"I don't have a wife."_

He had already experienced the worst pain ever, Sophie realised. She shouldn't push him.


	47. Chapter 49

**Hi guys! I'm back from my hiatus! For 5 days straight it was nothing but exams. But now they're over, I'm back! Of course, the only one's that left is the real deal exams, aka the PSLE.**

**I also updated my Harry Potter and KOTLC crossover, like, after one month. Phew. *sighs***

**This chapter is quite long to thank you for waiting ever so patiently! Thanks! :) And I really don't care if you just give me 3 reviews, cos I love writing to death and nothing can stop me. I was an immature child back then, riighhht? ;)**

**ForeverFreeFall: You review every chapter, and that makes me ever so so so so so so so so so happy! EEK! THANKS for all your love and support! Love you!And I do understand your pain with book characters though I have never been in love with a guy character before. *smiles sheepishly as crowd gasps* yes, yes, I know. But I do love Soreas too! I love every single one of them!**

**daringwolf2000: I wasn't really betting for an emotional chapter, but it just came. I guess. I love it that you found it emotional. Thank you for all your love! **

**A person: Hah, yes, I know, it was weird, but I liked it too. High five!**

**Thanks to DemigodShadowhunterTribute for favouriting(That is NOT a word, grammar) and following! **

** ILYSM  
**

With the new her, Sophie Foster stepped forward with Keefe, Fitz, Dex, and Biana. Master Leto inclined his head ever so slightly, gesturing them to sit down on the crystal modern-like chairs. The sound of the legs scraping across the marble floor could be heard across the room. Sophie sank back into the leaning chair, feeling the cold crystal soothe her warm, weary back.

Yes, Sophie was tired. _Tired_ was an understatement. She was totally exhausted. The stress had been weighing on her since forever, and it was getting heavier and heavier by the passing minutes as they discussed lengthily about the breaking-in to Exile and healing Prentice. She wanted to yawn and let cool oxygen rush into her mouth. But the air here was musty and smelly, one breath in through the mouth-Sophie would try her best not to gag as the stench filled her lungs.

Seriously, it didn't mean that she wanted to give up. Now that she had changed-"Changed for the better," Master Leto approved-she couldn't give up. She must preserve. Millions-no,_ billions_ of people were going to die because of the rebellion's plan. The whole species of humans would die-if not the whole species of elves. And Sophie couldn't risk losing her loved ones.

"Biana will disappear into the darkness and Sophie and I will meet the dwarf that'll be waiting for us, holding the magsidian crystal...Sophie. Sophie! Are you listening?" Master Leto snapped at Sophie, who snapped out of her trance in an instance.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, yeah," she mumbled, wishing she didn't feel so red as Keefe snickered not so quietly.

Master Leto glared at the both of them. "Pay attention. Sophie, I know you hadn't absorbed one word of it, so we have to start over." His sharp eyes bored into Sophie. "It's not only about thinking, it's about acting. Madlen, start from the beginning."

Madlen scowled, but he did so in an obstinate yet weary voice. "After three days from today we will embark on the journey. The Black Swan's dwarfs have been assigned to the bodyguard position, so don't worry about getting through the Gateway to Exile and the Entrance to Exile. The hardest part is deep inside. When we reach the bottom of the staircase and into the Room Where Chances are Lost, the bodyguard inside is a strange creature named-"

"Krikor, right?" Sophie said, flashing back to the time when she'd been in Exile. Pictures of the horrible place flashed through her mind, but she pushed them away brashly. Master Leto raised his eyebrows at her struggle but didn't say anything. Fitz squeezed her shoulder comfortingly.

"Yes, Sophie Foster," Madlen scowled. "Now, do not interrupt me again." His tone in his voice told Sophie he meant it. Sophie shut her mouth and continued listening.

"Krikor would be hard to fool. He's a goblin and goblin senses are very strong and the only way to get past them is-"

"Fire," the five children chorused. (Soreas glanced at them. "Children," he scoffed. "Hey, aren't you one too?" Keefe demanded. "No," Soreas replied.) Madlen nodded approvingly.

"Glad you know," he said, "but the problem is, the Black Swan doesn't have even one Pyrokinetic. So what are we going to use to burn?"

"We don't need fire," Sophie blurted out. "We only need light and a magnifying glass." Her mind was spinning with years of knowledge from Science lessons. All the elves were confused, except for Soreas, who nodded and remarked that it was clever for a girl like Sophie. ("What does that mean?" Sophie frowned. Soreas ignored her smoothly.)

"How?" asked Dex, utterly confused. Sophie rolled her eyes and explained about how the light rays focused to one point when shone through the magnifying glass, and would burn something that was being focused on. Master Leto, curious, took a magnifying glass and told a Flasher to lend light. He observed with wonder as the piece of crumpled paper burst into flames.

"Good idea," he said. "But I'm afraid it won't work well."

Sophie was stunned and a little angry. "What but why?" Keefe fanned the air, complaining that Sophie was too angry. Sophie resisted the urge to slap him.

Master Leto held up the magnifying glass and the light ball. "No matter how you change the variables, it just won't spark enough fire. A Pyrokinetic it must be, and that's that."

"But we don't have a Pyrokinetic! How many times was that repeated?!" Biana cried.

"One time," Soreas said. "Sir Kerlof, I suggest we take the girl. She's young and innocent and may listen to us."

Sophie's mind was spinning too fast to make the links. "Oh, don't tell me we're going to take _Marella? _She's literally obsessed with the Neverseen. Obsessed, I tell you." She shuddered and Keefe and Biana looked as horrified as she was too. Only Dex and Fitz were oblivious to Marella's actions, so they shrugged and didn't say anything.

"Yes, we are going to take Marella Redek," snapped Madlen. "Now, hurry up. We must snatch the girl now. There is no time to lose."

"Don't tell me you're going to send us to that horrible place again!" cried Biana. "I had enough of there! It's dirty and filthy, it stains my lovely purple dress, and the air smells so smelly-"

"DON'T WHINE!" Sophie shouted in her face, resisting it no more. Her voice rang through the room, cutting out any other sound. Silence as still as a lake settled in the room. Even Keefe and Soreas didn't say anything. "BILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF THIS, AND YOU'RE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE WELL-BEING OF YOURSELVES? SERIOUSLY? PRENTICE MAY NOT MATTER TO YOU, THIS MAY NOT MATTER TO YOU, BUT IT MATTERS TO ME! IT MATTERS TO US!" She screamed, feeling red and black fill her vision, making her body shake dangerously. Master Leto reached for her with his hand, but she shoved him away, glared at Biana, glared at everybody in the whole world, stood up, spun on her heel, exited the room and slammed the door.

Nobody tried to stop her as she bit her lip and stalked away, walking through the corridor as she melted into the shadows. The world spun round and round as the dim grey corridors entered her vision.

This wasn't her home. Havenfield was her home. And yet, she was stuck in this place, where people didn't seem to care. Nobody cared enough to take action. The Black Swan's claims of healing Prentice and saving the world were fake. Fake. All fake. Only Estelle, Sora, and Soreas seemed to care. Kenric. Jolie. They all cared. But not the ones who were living now. No wonder the world was turning for the worse.

Maybe Master Leto cared, but he was the worst father ever-if he was even a father to Sophie. Really? If it was true, well then, Sophie felt that he didn't _deserve_ to be her father.

That was it. She was doing things herself.

Biana complained. Keefe cracked jokes. Dex grumbled about Wonderboy. Fitz was too perfect and snobby. They all didn't seem to realise the impending danger coming straight at them at the speed of a Maglev Train.

Sophie shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks as she raced into her dormitory. She tried not to look at Biana's bed and desk as she let Iggy flitter onto her shoulder. She grabbed her purple bag along with the note from Grady and Edaline.

She was about to leave when she saw a slip of paper pinned onto Biana's desk. The long, elegant letters were scrawled in Estelle's quick handwriting. Her conversation with Biana rushed back to her as she swallowed, the words ringing through her mind.

_Jolie's decease connected to Root Abyss. Follow the pretty bird across the sky. Prepare for war. Find out the truth behind telepathy and use it to advantage. Neverblaze._

Obviously Estelle and Jolie were best friends, if not why would Estelle know so much about Jolie's death? So it was connected to Root Abyss? Sophie's mind spun with ideas as she grabbed the paper, shoved it under her cape, and ran into the darkness. She never got lost, thanks to her photographic memory.

She headed down the path to the tunnel of pathways and ran through the tunnel again. Sophie could still see the burnt ground from the Everblaze. Pieces of plaster and dirt were still hanging from the ceiling. Sophie had to duck her head as she winded through the passageway, her mind remembering every twist and turn she took from the fashion shop in Firenze.

She finally found the trapdoor. The trapdoor that led to all the trouble that had rushed in like a fierce wave from the raging, stormy Root Abyss. That chasm had a truth hidden behind all the salt spray. Sophie was going to find that out when she had the time. Wrong, she never had the time. But she didn't have time to think about that.

Sophie resisted the urge to pluck out an itchy eyelash as she pulled open the trapdoor. Light flooded into the passageway as she smelled fresh air. She almost laughed as she smelled the taste of freedom.

Freedom. It felt so great. Sophie smiled for the first time in ages as she exited the fashion shop and into the alleys of Firenze. She felt really uncomfortable, like something was going to happen, but she saw nothing.

Sophie walked for sometime with Iggy's tardis blue fur-Dex had dyed him blue-when something bound her wrists together and cold metal bit into her flesh.

She screamed but it was muffled when a knobbly hand covered her mouth.

A goblin. But it wasn't Sandor. It was-

A hooded figure stepped out of the shadows, the cloaks swirling around he or she. But it wasn't the dark, black cape that the Neverseen wore.

It was a diamond encrusted silver cloak.

The style worn by the Councillors.

* * *

**Oooh! Which Councillor do you think it is?  
**

**Um...**

**Frankly I have no idea too. So tell me and let's have a poll! Until next chapter! Hope you liked it!  
**


	48. Chapter 50

**Hi guys! Long time no see! This is the longest chapter I've ever written, word count 2,479 words not including author's note. Hope you enjoy it!**

**And thanks to a person for pointing out my chapters were a little off! I realised it too, but I didn't have time to retype the whole thing.**

**daringwolf2000: Haha, I know right? But don't worry too much, she'll be fine! And they're not really breaking the rules because Sophie's the one who broke a whole lot of rules. :/ Thanks for reviewing! :)**

**ForeverFreeFall: Haha, Alina? Okay! Oh, and I am totally new to this "virtual cookie" thing, but I'll try! (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)Can you see 1 cookie=2 smiley faces? ;)**

**A person: Excellent reasoning! But I wouldn't be using the Guster thing here. It's going to be used for another thing! **

**P.S. Thanks! My chapters _are_ a little off.**

**P.P.S. 10th paragraph of the story? Like, um...last chapter or the whole story? Tell me, so I'll be able to tell you the meaning :)**

* * *

**And we've reached the 50th chapter! WOOHOO! I've come so far, lol...So happy...  
**

* * *

The Councillors had arrived.

Well, one at least. Sophie felt a chill creep down her spine. For a moment, she was too shocked to even move. Then, when the Councillor started moving toward her, Sophie blinked and backed away as fast as she could-

Only to bump into another figure. Not the goblin bodyguard, though. Sophie bit her lip nervously and turned around slowly in fear only to see another Councillor dressed in another fancy silver cloak.

Oh, there were two. Great luck she had today.

Her lip trembled nervously as she knew there was no escape.

The Councillor behind her spoke up. It was a deep booming voice that was all too familiar to Sophie.

"Sophie Foster," Counillor Emery said clearly. Sophie had never been one to be so intimidated by Councillor Emery, but now she felt fear choking her throat, and she found it really hard to breathe well. "You went and joined the Black Swan along with your four friends."

Sophie found and mustered her courage and swallowed the huge lump in her throat. "Yes. I did. Because I felt a need to, Councillor Emery. I did not try to force my friends into submission. In fact, I had to give in to their relentless insistence and let them join the Black Swan. Our only hope was that the Council didn't find us out in the nick of time and escape to the Black Swan's base in the Forbidden Cities."

A pleasant yet cold, articulate voice rang out behind Sophie. The other Councillor. "I see."

Sophie resisted the temptation to curse as she turned around and dipped a bow. She eyed the female Councillor dubiously. Which Councillor was this?  
The Councillor laughed, like she had read Sophie's thoughts, and removed the shady hood from her hair. She soothed her caramel-coloured hair, letting it fall on her shoulders, which were of the colour of porcelain, and smiled rather evilly at Sophie.

Councillor Alina, the Councillor that had taken over Kenric's place after his decease.

Unfairly.

Sophie now hated her with all her might-even more than Councillor Bronte. At least he had taken her side when the ability restrictor was placed on Sophie's head. Councillor Alina had went against Sophie-betrayed Sophie, in fact. Sophie had even trusted her-she had once thought Councillor Alina was on her side.

Apparently not.

The new Sophie knew to TRUST NO ONE.

She opened her mouth to murmur a greeting. "Councillor Alina."

Councillor Alina regarded her venomously, like she was a piece of garbage, which was ready any minute to be thrown in a dustbin. _Before you do that, remember that I'm the only hope you have of winning the war you don't even know that is coming,_ Sophie thought bitterly.

Her talents had been growing stronger and stronger, and they were still doing so. Sophie knew that, and she knew if she wanted to, she could take out the two snobby Councillors and their pathetic goblin bodyguard with just one round of Inflicting. But in order not to waste her energy, she refrained from doing so and instead waited for Councillor Alina's reply.

Councillor Alina smiled, though it was a cold, venomous, poisonous smile. "Sophie," she purred. "Do you know why we're here?"

Sophie felt a sharp retort spring to her throat. "To catch me? Good luck doing that. My friends will be coming to save me soon. And they're too quick for your own good!" She was proud that her voice didn't tremble one time, but she wasn't so sure of the lie that came out as easily as sliding across butter. So the new Sophie was like that? Lying in order to act confident? Feel confident? Old Sophie wasn't really sure about New Sophie's ways, but she obliged and let Sophie speak up again.

"I mean," Sophie continued. "Don't you even know about the impending danger that is coming? There's going to be a vulgar war among the elves, humans, the Neverseen, and the Black Swan. Millions-no, billions are going to die, and the Black Swan is just trying to HELP! The Neverseen are the ones who are going to initiate and spark this war. Are you really foolish enough to mistake the Black Swan for the evil guys? It's the Neverseen who are the villains! Seriously!"

Councillor Emery and Councillor Alina exchanged an amused look, and Sophie felt irritation rising steadily in her. "Is she serious?" Councillor Alina said, laughing. She stared at Sophie. "But we'll let it pass this time, because of course, the antagonist's project would naturally defend its creators! It's quite sad, you know. Wait, it's actually quite amusing."

Councillor Emery spoke, sounding annoyed, "Alina, let's stop making small chat to beat around the bush. Now, we'll just get straight to the point. Sophie Foster, you have violated close to a dozen laws in the Lost Cities. And according to the laws, violating so many rules will lead to treason or even locking you up in Exile.

_That's good,_ Sophie thought rather pleasingly, _When you lock me up in Exile I can go and heal Prentice with more ease than ever!_  
"It doesn't end her up there if the law is stupid," A familiar, warm but stern voice said out of the blue as pounding footsteps could be heard.  
Sophie's ears perked up. Keefe! So they had really came to rescue her! An overwhelming warm sensation rose in her, causing her cheeks to become a red, rosy colour.

Councillor Emery , Councillor Alina, and the goblin bodyguard whirled around, shocked, but it was too late. Three glowing, metallic nets landed on the three of them and captured them neatly into the trap.

Sophie turned around and saw Master Leto(in his ruckleberry disguise), Madlen, Soreas, Keefe, Fitz, Dex, and Biana standing behind her. She ran towards them and gave them an embrace one by one. (Though when Sophie tried to hug Madlen and Master Leto, they grunted and pushed her away.)  
"I can't believe you really came and saved me," She mumbled, wrapping her arms around Keefe tightly. Everyone felt so good. "I was such a jerk."

Soreas snorted. "Puh-lease. If you weren't the Moonlark, you'll see what'll happen." But when he saw Sophie's dismayed expression, he laughed (apparently, for the first time) and thumped Sophie on the back so hard she thought she would choke. "I'm just kidding with you, Sophie. We would save you no matter what ridiculous things you seem to do everytime!"

Just then, an electrifying sound rang through the air, and Councillor Alina's loud, girlish, and piercing scream rang through the air, making all of them wince and cringe, covering their ears protectively.

Councillor Emery scowled at them. Then he glared daggers at Master Leto, Madlen, and Soreas. "So you're part of the notorious Black Swan organization. You are...You are..." He mumbled, staring at Master Leto. "You look very familiar, but I can't place a finger on who..." He shook his head.

Sophie's heart beat loudly. This was bad! If Councillor Emery recognised Master Leto as Magnate Leto Kerlof back in the Lost Cities, he would make all the connections and infiltrate the Black Swan group! Then the Neverseen will triumph and all would be doomed!

Master Leto glared at him. "What?" He shook his head, like the Councillors were a hopeless case that could not be dealt with. "Anyway, Dex, you can send them off already. Wait! Before they go." He taped a note on the top of Councillor Alina's net. "We'll show them how sorry the Council will be."  
Keefe grinned at him. "Nice plan, old dude."

Master Leto shot him a death glare. "Unless you want to be sent to the bottom of Root Abyss, you can shut your mouth up and stop calling me old dude, Sencen boy." Keefe shut his mouth when he heard his surname being spoken out loud. His eyes filled with some indistinguishable emotion. Sophie knew he was thinking about his parents.

Dex didn't give them a second glance as he pushed a button on a strange looking device. Small intricate white crystals that Sophie had never noticed before on each net caught the light from the now rising sun, and the three of them dissolved into the light.

"They'd been sent back to the Lost Cities, where the other Councillors will find them," Madlen said quietly. "They'll know not to mess with us then."  
Sophie shook her head. "I don't think they would ever leave us alone. In fact, I think they will try harder now."

A silence fell over the eight of them. Sophie felt like it was time to say something.

"I-I'm sorry I left you all behind," She said through abrupt pauses. "I mean...If you haven't noticed, I have grown stronger and I was quite irritated by the fact that not all were the same as me." She turned to Biana, who was wearing a sad smile. "I'm really sorry, Biana. I really didn't mean to shout at you. I...was just under a lot of stress. What with the news of the war, and now the breaking-in to Exile to heal Prentice, which seems close to impossible."

"You were wrong," corrected Master Leto, "But you developed greatly over the series of events and managed to make it through, emerging as a stronger character. It pains me to say this...but...I think you really have done me proud." His eyes filled with a happy emotion that Sophie identified as pride. But why would Master Leto be proud of her? He was just her creator, nothing else.

Was he...?

Biana smiled at Sophie, nodding graciously. "I forgive you, Sophie."

"We all forgive you," the seven of them chorused. Sophie felt a blush creeping up her cheeks-but it wasn't the super embarrassing kind of blush-it was the kind that you felt when you were happy.

"Thank you." She said, smiling for the first time in ages.

She couldn't be all hard and cold but not a little soft too, Sophie realised. If she was that kind of person, nothing would ever work out in life.  
"So..." Soreas's tone became serious and a little sad. "We have another mission to do before the Council goes roaming around for us again.."

Sophie turned her head to face him.

"We have to rescue Sora," Soreas said, looking away from her stare.

* * *

THE TIME HAD FINALLY CAME. TO RESCUE SORA.

Sophie thought it would be ages before they heard of news from her, but it seemed like they needed to take action immediately.

What if Sora was dead already?

Sophie pushed back the sickening thought and clamped down the urge to pick out a loose eyelash as Soreas said, "I have this all planned out. Normally, Sir Kerlor or Madlen would be the ones who plan out all the things, but they resolved to let me do it, because..."

"Because you're her brother." Fitz supplied quietly. Soreas looked at him for a while, then nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah...Because I'm her brother. They said nobody else would know her as much as I do. That Jin can go and dunk her head in the water for all she wants, but she doesn't even understand half of Sora's feelings"-Keefe resisted an urge to burst out laughing-"so I have to be the one."

"There is only one way to do this," Madlen spoke out, almost silent. "We have to drain out all the water in the chasm."

Master Leto nodded as a loud gasp sounded from the five children. "I know it sounds rather ruthless, like demolishing a building with a rich history, but there is no other way. Believe me. Well, if we really want to save the Heks girl. And she is too valuable an asset to lose. We've already lost _her,_ so we cannot afford to make the same mistake again." He and Madlen shot a pointed glance at Sophie, and Sophie tried her very best not to squirm.

It had been her fault when Estelle died. She covered the leaks in her mind to prevent guilt from flowing in. She clamped her teeth together as Fitz asked, "So we begin now? How do we do it?"

Master Leto nodded his head at the direction of the Black Swan base. "We go there and start."

They were entering the fashion shop to go into the trapdoor that led to the Black Swan base when Sophie found a loophole in their plan. "Soreas? But won't that give Neverseen a higher chance to infiltrate our base?"

Seven pairs of eyes swiveled around to look at her. Sophie tried not to squirm again as she said, "Like, because Root Abyss is the kind of like the cross-way between the Black Swan base and the Neverseen base. The water is the only thing keeping the cross-way blocked. If we clear out all the water, won't the Neverseen be able to enter with ease?"

Awkward silence hung among the eight of them as Soreas bit his lip. "Well..." he said, "I...I never thought of that."

Just then, a loud ringing sound, sounding like wind chimes tinkling, rang out. It seemed to be coming from Biana.

Biana smiled sheepishly as she rolled up her fashionable looking sleeve and uncovered the cuff around her wrist, and used two fingers to swipe across the surface of the glass . " Who could it be, calling for help?"Biana muttered, feeling curious.

The others felt curious too as the screen misted up with a fog, then cleared up to reveal a stricken, dirtied, and bloodied face.

"Sora!" The eight of them cried out in shock.

Sora's deep aquamarine blue eyes were filled with worry and anxiety as she glanced over her shoulder frantically. "Listen, guys, you have to come now. I don't have much time left-" She screamed as a charred hand grabbed her wrist and she collapsed in agony.

"Sora, no!" Soreas cried out, but then the screen went blank and Sora was gone.

Tension rose fast as each of the elves stood there, biting their lips. At last somebody spoke up, and it was Keefe.

"I saw their symbol." He said slowly, trying to hide his shaky hands behind his back.

"That could only mean one thing, right?" Biana asked nervously, her pretty teal eyes filled with fright.

Dex nodded, his eyes filled with an emotion that Sophie couldn't distinguish. "It means Sora is in the Neverseen base."

* * *

**Question: If Sora will survive, who would you ship her with? Any answer is acceptable, I just want to hear your opinions.**


	49. Chapter 51

**Hi guys! Here I am again! This might be the last update I'll have for weeks before my exams end and FREEDOM!**

**The word count for this chapter is 2,253 excluding author's note. Hope you enjoy!**

**And only 1 person out of 3 guessed who I am putting Sora with. Don't worry, all will be revealed this chapter!**

**ForeverFreeFall: Fitz, huh? ;) I guess you'll have to wait and see. Oh definitely Soritz. AND YES, I LOVE ALL MY CHAPTERS! I might be a little bit biased here, but STILL! You gotta love yourself, right? Thanks for being so sweet! Love you!**

**A person: Yeah, thanks to A PERSON. ;) Hahaha. *Sorry for not giving you credit! :P* And shipping with Keefe? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm we shall wait and see! AND I AM SO HAPPY TO RECEIVE 3 REVIEW THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU MADE MY DAY. But cookie with candy? That's ewww. Chocolate chip? Please? Please? Please?**

**daringwolf2000: It's okay if you don't know! And oops! I wen back and reread, and I burst out laughing! Thanks for correcting me and liking this chapter!**

**Another Person: Are you A person? Probably not, because you're ANOTHER PERSON. ;) Oh yeah, so that's who you ship her with, huh? *mysterious smile***

* * *

_"__I saw their symbol." He said slowly, trying to hide his shaky hands behind his back._

_"That could only mean one thing, right?" Biana asked nervously, her pretty teal eyes filled with fright._

_Dex nodded, his eyes filled with an emotion that Sophie couldn't distinguish. "It means Sora is in the Neverseen base."_

Dex let the words hang, and sink into his mind and heart slowly. He put a shaky hand over his heart, feeling the wild palpitation jumping from his heart. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he needed to. It was true and real as the stars.

He was falling hard for Sora.

But Sophie and his friends were looking at him strangely, so he let his hand fall back to his side and shot a look at Fitz, hatred still boiling in his veins, but not as much as before already. He had hated Fitz not only because he was a Vacker, but he always seemed to be the only one who captured Sophie's romantic attention. But not now. Ever since he had met Sora and got along with her, Dex found himself warming to the hard-core, stubborn, but pretty girl.

Maybe he was getting too close to her.

_When you get too close to a person, it often brings heartbreaks and disappointment, _A little voice whispered softly and comfortingly in Dex's mind, sparking a fire in his gut, and he hardly heard Fitz speaking as he swallowed the humongous lump in his throat nervously.

A vivid, horrible picture of Sora falling to her death flashed in Dex's mind, and he squeezed his eyes so hard that it brought tears to his corneas, but the mental picture was stuck stubbornly there, as if it was firmly nailed to the ground.

More pictures came, flowing back like a rushing river. Memories of her. Memories of Sora. He remembered the first time they had snuck out secretly together to play an intense game of base-quest, and that was when she had accidentally fallen on him and they landed in a heap, their arms and legs tangled together. And Sora had let out a piercing yet melodious laugh, a laugh so pleasing to his ears that left him grinning like an idiot for ages.

He remembered the time Sora had pulled him into the circular dome room that was nicknamed The Training Room and she had given him his first self-defense session. When they had a combat fight, Sora won of course, and even though Dex didn't like being pummeled to the ground, he still felt happy and blissful.

He recalled the time when he had found Sora, her head buried in her knees, and sobbing softly. The corridor was deserted that time, and when Dex had found her, he was surprised.

_"__Why are you crying?" He asked, curious and worried. Sora gazed up at Dex, her deep dark aquamarine eyes filled with shiny tears. Then she shook her head, and stood up, wiping her tears slowly with her backs of her hands. She let the smooth fabric of her cape absorb the salty, warm liquid and ignored Dex coldly as she spun on her heel to walk away._

_Dex didn't know what he was doing, but he acted on instinct and grabbed her wrist before she could leave._

_Sora glared at him, making him wince. "Stop it! Go away!" But when she lifted her eyes to really look him in the eyes, she burst into tears again. Dex held her awkwardly around her waist as she cried against his chest. She was making Dex really uncomfortable. And there was this strange, but warm feeling spreading through him that he only experienced when he was around Sophie. No...This couldn't be...He liked Sophie, not this reckless Black Swan girl!_

_Light, soft footsteps came around the corner, but Dex couldn't see who it was as he was facing back, but Sora seemed to see, and tightened her grip on his shoulder. _

_"__No. Don't." _

_She spoke with such a commanding, strong, and fierce voice so unlike the kind and warm Sora that Dex pulled away from her, alarmed._

_His hands grazed her shoulders as he did so, and part of her cape slipped down from her shoulders and it could have been his imagination, but Dex thought he saw a black circle, like an eye, staring ominously at him._

_It had haunted his nightmares ever since._

And now, Sora was most possibly dead. What would Dex do without her? Sure, there were his friends, but Fitz and Biana, being haughty Vackers, hardly talked to him, and Sophie and Keefe had just been undercover in the Neverseen base with Biana for quite a while. When Sora had received the call for help from Biana's side, she had gone to the Root Abyss with no hesitation to join in their fight and help defeat Jin. She had even promised Dex that she would. But she lied.

"You lied," Dex whispered, a tear running down his cheek. "You lied."

A cutting voice rang through his mind, pulling him out of his reverie. "Dex? What are you saying? Who lied?" A familiar, sweet voice. Sophie. She looked at Dex worriedly while Keefe, Fitz, and Biana also did the same.

Master Leto's blue eyes bored into him, and Dex knew he knew what he had been thinking about. His heart stalled in dread as his gaze darted around and around until Master Leto's piercing gaze left him and Dex could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Madlen and Soreas just shrugged, oblivious to just what happened. But Sophie's mental voice rung through his mind suddenly. _It's super clear you've not been listening to anything we were discussing. Well, I'll fill you in okay. BUT, you have to tell me what were you so obsessed about that you were so into your mind. Deal?_

Dex didn't answer. He wasn't too sure if he wanted to tell Sophie or not.

_And you'll have to count the rest of us in too,_ Sophie told him.

Dex gave a groan inside his head.

* * *

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Dex asked, squirming under the four stares that were directed to him. Sophie's personality had changed from soft, nervous, and unsure, into strong, hard, but sure. Not that he totally disliked it, of course. Over the months of enduring training, Sophie had endured and stressed over the endless problems that the Black Swan seemed to face, and came out strong underneath all the troubles they had got into.

Sophie's eyes hardened as she stared at him. "Dex, if I tell you, would you tell us what were you thinking about?"

Dex's heart began to pump faster, and his stubborn nature responded as anger and irritation rose in him. "I don't see why you could just tell me. What was the main reason we came with you to join the Black Swan? We were a team, and a team at that. We should be involved in everything that we do. But now, it doesn't seem like it! So much for teamwork!" he retorted, and Sophie's eyes blinked for a second before hardening again. Her friends watched her worriedly as she narrowed her eyes at Dex.

"Yeah, if you are so concerned about teamwork, then why didn't you pay attention at all?" Sophie demanded, then her eyes finally softened into the warm, soft brown eyes that Dex knew so well. "Come on, Dex, you know I'm right. You know you're not acting like your normal self." Then her eyes lit up. "Is it because of...her?"

Her voice hitched at the last word, and her eyes became slightly misty, though evidently, she was trying to cover her grief back. It was then when Dex realised, Sophie is sad too.

Dex took a deep breath. "Okay...Basically..." He mustered his courage shakily and told the other four of them about him falling for Sora, and when she fell to her death, he had been troubled ever since.

Keefe grunted in sympathy, and thumped him on his back so hard that Dex almost choked. "Dude, if that was all, you could have just spilled all of it out! I mean-"

"Like _you_ do the same thing," Dex retorted. "I know you're hiding your own secrets too...Like something about a _certain girl..."_

Heat crept to Keefe's cheeks, but only a second. "Oh goodness, you're right! But Dex, your one is the ultimate one. Biana, oh, I can't explain it. You do it!"

Biana rolled her eyes, but said, "Basically, he thinks that you and Sora are a true pairing."

Dex, dumbfounded and shocked, jabbed his finger at himself. "Me? And...her?"

Sophie smirked. "Yeah." Then her gaze softened again. "Dex...actually...before you had even confessed to us...we already know."

"WHAT?"

She had a sad smile on her face. "Come on, Dex...It's quite obvious...isn't it? Me and Fitz saw you two hugging. You were comforting her when she was crying. The protective way you defended her. And you even went against me when you thought that it was my fault when she fell...into Root Abyss."

Dex suddenly became very interested in his elvin-style shoes. "I..."

Fitz spoke up for the first time. "Dex, even though I know that you dislike me, but...if you're feeling anything...troubling, feel free to come and see me to talk about it. I'm...not that bad as you think."

Dex blinked back tears in his eyes.

"I'll be there too. For you, Dex. You have no reason to worry," Sophie reassured him.

"Me too," chimed in Biana.

"Me three!" Keefe added cheerfully. "And dude, when you've finally recovered from your heartbreak, we can do all sorts of fun stuff again! We could drop stinky gas on the Neverseen! Hack into their secret account! Everything that involves glittery-"

Sophie placed a finger on his lips, causing Keefe to blush slightly. "Well, but Keefe, you could save your plans for later. We still have to tell Dex what we are planning for the break in to Exile."

She ripped off a piece of paper from her notepad lying on the black long table fiercely, and took out a silver pencil from her cape pocket. She drew a big semicircle in the middle, and lots of sand. Then outside the semicircle she used her pencil to draw two straight lines leading to the end of the paper and darkened one side of the semicircle.

Sophie gazed at the drawing, satisfied. "Done! Now, the semicircle is Exile itself. The two straight lines are representing the Gateway to Exile, and the shaded part is the Entrance to Exile."

The four of them stared at the hasty drawing. "It looks utterly horrible, Sophie," Biana commented. "Remind me never to ask you to draw something next time."

Sophie scowled. "Oh, shut up," she said, but she was laughing. "Okay. So the way to Gateway and Entrance has already been covered by Madlen, so we need not worry about that. Tomorrow, the bodyguard dwarf there will be one of the Black Swan's operatives, so you have no reason to worry too."

"You sound like my dad," Fitz said. "I miss him."

"Me too," Biana said wistfully. "And mom too."

Sophie nodded her head quickly. "Right. So after we get into the main building of Exile, we will unlock the door with the balefire keys that will be provided to us, and we will go down the steps. Down. Down. Down." She shuddered. "Trust me, it's not a good experience."

Keefe draped an arm over Sophie's shoulders to comfort her.

"And then," Sophie continued, "When we finally reach the bottom of the stairs, we will enter the Room Where Hope Was Lost or whatever it was called. There is Krikor, the goblin I met before when I visited Exile." Her eyes told Dex that she was trying not to let all the painful memories flood into her mind. "Krikor is fine. We will put a sedative in his lunch break. Biana is in charge of that. You already know what to do for that, right, Biana?"

Biana nodded, her fists clenched in determination.

"After we put Krikor to sleep, Biana will steal his prison keys from his pocket and we're all ready and set to go to Prentice's cell and heal him." Sophie paused to take a deep breath. "And my guide will be Fitz. We're both trained Keepers now. I believe I am ready. Are you?"

The five of them nodded.

Fitz added quietly, "We are a team now. We have to stick to each other. Until the end." He placed his right hand on the smooth wood of the table. The other four joined in too.

"Until the end," Sophie said, her eyes glinting.

"Until the end," The five of them echoed, feeling the trust and promise circulate around them. And Dex couldn't help but smile.

"Well," Keefe said, "I'm too tired to make any jokes. I believe it is time for bed time. Right? Okay, me, Fitz, and Dex will go back to our dormitory and sleep. You girls have a good night's rest, so we'll be all set for tomorrow."

"You too, boys," Sophie returned politely, and she stretched her arms, yawning.

Biana glanced at her tiredly. "It has been a long day, after all, right?"

"Yeah," Sophie agreed drowsily, drifting off to sleep. On this day, many things had happened to make Sophie a stronger character.

And she hoped that a stronger character would help her in healing Prentice and winning the war.

* * *

**Question: Do you like Sophie's new personality? Why/Why not?**

**I am so going to post a question every chapter :P**

**And for you guys who are wondering when they would rescue Sora, it'll be after the healing :) Bye for now! See ya after my exams!**


	50. Chapter 52

**Guys, hi, long time no see. I know I said I was only going to update after my exams (tomorrow's my 1st exam) but for English exam tomorrow studying, I decided to update. And guess what, I just pretty much found out that when I write using Microsoft Word, I could write much more and much better chapters than just writing the thing in Fanfiction. net's server thingy, so I'm going to use MS for all the remaining chapters so that you can enjoy my chapters more.**

**This chapter's word count is 3,556 words. Longest. Chapter. Ever. And even though this is kinda a filler, it's still very important to read it, and I hope you read it seriously, one word by one word. Thanks!**

**Thank you so much to pen. edge for following my story! Means a lot to me.**

**A person: I'm glad you like Sophie's new personality. Well, I half-like and half-don't like it. Haha, and I already knew 'another person' was another person. There's no need to, but thanks for clarifying. Sending love and luck :)  
**

**daringwolf2000: Yes. The new Sophie is more willing to help others and has more courage too! I'm glad you thought of these reasons why you liked her new self, because they were exactly the ones why I liked her! Oh, and you send me good luck for my exams? THANK. YOU. SO. MUCH! :)**

**KeeperforGoode: Sure :) I also support Keefster, there's no need to try to persuade me anymore! Haha.**

**ForeverFreeFall: Yay! I'm glad you're glad that Sora lived! And thanks for expressing your opinion. And frankly? I both like and dislike Sophie's new character. Exactly the same reasons as you! BUT AHA! FINALLY FOUND A PERSON WHO HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION! I love it! Thanks! And I totally support Sorax, man. I've shipped it since Sora's first appearance in this fanfic ;) Haha!  
**

**fiona: Omg, I found another person who likes my story! Thank you so much! It means the world when you said you can't wait for chapter 52! Whether it might excite you or disappoint, I hope you'll still like it and have faith in me! Thank you again! :)**

**Pen. edge: Yay, you appeared! I'm so happy! And it really made my day when you complimented that my chapters were really good. And YES, another person who has a different thinking! I'm glad you didn't feel afraid to tell the truth. Honestly, I have no idea if I like Sophie's new personality or not. Guess she's a little too cold, but that'll be all sorted out in the next coming chapters. And thanks for the feedback, I'll consider your idea! And sosososososooo happy you like Dex and Sora together!:)**

**Man, you guys really make me happy, even when my life's tough! And it is. Thank you so much!**

* * *

Sophie tossed and turned in her sleep. She clutched her pillow tightly with her fingers as she shut her eyes and the vivid nightmares came again.

All to do with fire.

The first nightmare was as old as an antique and always came no matter what. It approached her as she was sleeping now.

_"Sophie! Sophie!" A panicked voice roused Sophie up as she blinked her eyes blearily. It was Amy. Sophie sniffed the air. It smelled strange. Was it...smoke? Was their house on fire?_

_Sophie sat up straight and shook a frightened Amy. "What's happening! Don't tell me our house is burning!" But before she could say anymore, smoke filled her lungs and she was starting to feel the after effects. She coughed and hacked as she choked on the smoke, Amy doing the same. But Amy's lips were turning slightly blue and her face was ashen and charred. Sophie knew they had to escape quick._

_"Quick!" She yelled as she pulled Amy out of her room. "Where are Mum and Dad?"_

_"I..I have no idea! What if they are d-d-dea-ad?" Amy burst out crying. Sophie wrapped her arms around her and took off her dressing gown, wetting it and holding it to their noses._

_They found Mum and Dad inside the kitchen, frantically putting out the fire. Sophie bit her lip and pulled them out of the kitchen, towards the entrance._

_She made it! They had almost escaped. One more pull, and her family would be safe too. But she felt her energy slowly fading. A weakening at her arms. She felt her eyes shutting and her fingers loosening on her family. _

_"Sophie! Sophie! Don't let go!" Amy cried aguishly. Sophie felt a tear streak down her cheek. _

_"I'm sorry, Mum, I'm sorry, Dad, I'm sorry, Amy, I can't hold on anymore..." She felt herself fainting and letting go. _

The second nightmare had first haunted her when they were about to leave to join the Black Swan.

_Sophie's vision was blurry._

_Where was she? She thrashed around, feeling bonds cuffed around her wrists and ankles._

_Blurs of dark cloaks swirled around her._

_Brant._

_His hot hands grabbed her wrists, and a searing throb of pain and a smell of burning flesh – Sophie's flesh – made Sophie's chest heave and her eyes water._

_Her eyesight finally focused, and when she directed her brown eyes to the back of Brant, smoke was billowing and flickers of flames were burning everything she could see. Everything she had ever loved. _

_Everblaze._

_The neon yellow flames was ready to devour her as Brant pulled her closer to the waiting Everblaze. The flames were hungry for her, for _anything.__

_She tried to escape, but the bonds held her back, cutting into her skin, making her cry out and wince in pain. Blood started to trickle._

_"So this is the end to you, Sophie Foster," the raspy voice cackled. "The Black Swan was foolish. Nobody would _ever_ miss you. Unless you surrender to the Neverseen, you will die."_

_He threw her into the flames._

"No!" Sophie yelled as she woke up with a start, sweat trickling down her neck. Her hands shook as she fumbled around for the light in her dormitory.

It seemed that she had awoken Biana too, for a bleary voice sounded in the darkness. "Sophie? Is that you? Is it time for the Great Thing?"

Today was the day to heal Prentice. Sophie had no idea if she could do it or not. It seemed easy, but impossible at the same time to break into Exile. What if they were caught? What if she messed up something and the whole operation went wrong?

No. There was no time to worry and doubt. Sophie pursed her lips and said, "Yeah, it's me. And I don't know, there's no way of telling time here. So I guess we better get up if we are late for the healing."

Biana agreed with her and they headed off into the dim corridor. The cold air struck Sophie like sharp needles and she shivered, remembering the sheer heat in her nightmares.

"Are you alright?" Biana asked Sophie. "You were shouting just now, and saying 'no'. Were you having a nightmare just now?"

Sophie felt irritated, though she didn't know why, and answered sharply, "No."

Biana flinched, then she said, "You know, it's good and all that you've changed, but...there is no need to act so harsh and all. Just don't crack under pressure, and stay strong. It isn't fun to hang out with you now. Sure, the old Sophie was stressed too, but the new one doesn't like to have fun at all and is totally serious and cold. I miss the old Sophie."

Sophie felt something leak into her heart. "Biana..." She was at a loss of words. How could she explain to Biana? That if she wasn't careful, people would get hurt again, like Kenric and Estelle? That if she wasn't totally serious, she would freak out and mess up the whole plan again? She didn't know how to act warm but serious at the same time. She was narrowed and stayed on one path only.

Biana looked away. "It's fine, I guess. You feel _responsible._ But mark my words-people do _not_ like harsh people. At all."

Sophie bit her lip. She knew she had lost her friend-for now.

They walked to the dining hall in silence. Sophie didn't so much than glance at the triangular symbol on the door that Brant wore. She didn't want to brood on it now.

But wait...

Her mind filled with pictures of her old home and the place where the boy who disappeared had appeared. Sophie compared it with the one that she was looking at right now.

And didn't she see the symbol on Elodie too? Well, she didn't see it herself, but the others had told her they had seen it on her when she had tried to ambush them in the fashion shop back in Firenze. And Elodie was part of the Neverseen. Brant was too.

Biana stopped to wait for her, tapping her foot impatiently, but Sophie knew she couldn't break her train of thoughts just then.

So the symbol had something to do with the Neverseen. And the boy who disappeared...the boy who _disappeared...disappeared...disappeared..._

Disappeared! He was a Vanisher! But who?

"Come ON!" Biana shouted at Sophie, making Sophie jump. She would have to think later. Now, they had a more important job to do.

The two of them entered the dining hall quietly, meeting up with the other three, Soreas, Madlen, and Master Leto.

"Glad you're finally here," Master Leto said, pulling out a black crystal. "I borrowed this from one of the Councillors and we are ready and set to go. Dex, do you have the sedative I asked you to carry? And Fitz, the balefire keys?"

The two boys nodded.

"Hey, what about me?" demanded Keefe. "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you haven't given me anything important to do, except guarding Sophie!"

"And guarding Sophie is important," Master Leto countered, walking past him. Keefe muttered something under his breath, and he looked annoyed. He came over to Sophie.

"Well, it looks like it's just you and me, Foster," Keefe said. Sophie smiled and nodded, remembering Biana's warning.

_People do not like harsh people. At all._

They were whisked off in a black light from Master Leto's black crystal.

Sophie looked around and found herself surrounded by the endless desert again. She felt her jaw tightening and her heartbeat speeding up reasonably.

"You okay there, Foster?" Man, when Keefe meant bodyguard, it was purely just overprotective.

Sophie gave him a thumbs up and that shut him up. Soreas gazed at the desert with an expression Sophie couldn't recognize. But it was probably because he missed Sora. Dex...Sophie didn't know why Dex liked Sora, but she fully supported whatever decision he would choose.

"Okay, so do we have everyone?" Madlen shouted over the noise. Everyone nodded. "So now, we are going to enter Exile. But do remember, you have to trust the trap."

"Whaddya mean?" Keefe hollered.

Madlen glared at him. "I mean, when we are being swallowed by the quicksand, please do not scream girlishly and flail around like an idiot, because that is our only entrance to Exile."

Keefe gave a thumbs up.

Sophie counted mentally inside her head for the quicksand to happen. 1...

2...

3.

The sand suddenly turned rebellious, and formed an inwards, steeping slope that had a gaping hole in the middle where grains of sand were sliding into-so were they.

Sophie's heart cried out in fear as she gripped Keefe's hand tightly. Nobody, not even Keefe, dared to make a sound as they slid into the hole, and probably towards the place of never ending doom.

Her stomach dived for how many seconds, Sophie was unsure as she was too frightened to count, but it stopped when they landed ungracefully on the sand in a hourglass-like building.

The Entrance To Exile.

It was just the beginning.

A mousy-looking dwarf stumbled out of the gloom. "So you're here, finally. Councillor Terik told me to trust you."

"Councillor Terik?" Sophie echoed. "Councillor Terik supports the Black Swan?"

Master Leto merely inclined his head slightly. Sophie felt her head spinning. This couldn't be true. First Elwin, then Councillor Terik? How much did she not know about the real world?

"Would you kindly come with us to deliver lunch for Krikor?" The dwarf asked Master Leto. "Since you are here already, I'll lead you down at the same time."

Madlen glanced at Biana and nodded his head slightly-not really a nod at all.

Biana snapped up and nodded at Madlen too. She moved behind Madlen and melted into thin air. Sophie could see Dex's plastic bag moving on his own and something being taken out.

"Please wait for me patiently here while I prepare Krikor's lunch," the dwarf was saying. "It would only take a short time, I promise."

"We have time," Soreas assured him, smiling a bit.

"Such nice elves," the dwarf complimented and hurried off into the darkness.

"Alright," Soreas said, stretching his arms lazily. "Let's wait for Biana to accomplish the first step towards our goal."

It seemed like an eternity before the dwarf came back, carrying a bag full of something-so much for a short time. "Alright, I've finished. Thanks for waiting. Now, we can go." He padded off, gesturing them to follow. "You have your balefire keys, I presume?"

Fitz nodded and handed out the keys to everyone.

Sophie fingered the crystal shard and breathed on it, sparking balefire. The blue flames flickered and danced inside the key.

"It's to help you see in the darkness," the dwarf explained. He unlocked the door and led them inside.

Cold musty air hit Sophie's lungs like a plague and she tried hard not to gag.

They started to go down the twisting stairs one by one. They went one step by one step down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Sophie's legs began to ache and her heart palpitated with such a great ferocity that she thought everyone could hear it. The simple action triggered a rush of memories in her brain. Horrible ones. Sophie could still remember Alden's bloody, injured head, he had been clutching it tightly and moaning loudly...

She shook her head and forced the tears to remain in her eyes. She must be strong. Even if it meant being cold, like Biana had so boldly pointed out. Honestly, she didn't care about what people thought of her now. Everyone was entitled to their own opinion.

Nothing really mattered now.

What was the point in her life? She was just an abnormal creation by the Black Swan who was doomed to fail. She had messed up everything so many times, she lost count. And she had taken away Estelle's life _by her own._ Sophie had inflicted on her, due to an emotional breakout. She wished she had been more careful.

They reached the end of the staircase and Sophie knew she had to buck up and stop thinking negative. She watched with attentive and alert eyes as the patient dwarf knocked on the plain old door.

Keefe pulled her aside to the dark shadows of the staircase to hide her so Krikor would not recognize her as the girl who had come to Exile with Alden once.

The wooden door swung open slowly with a loud creak, and Krikor appeared at the doorstep. He looked the same as ever, and he had a bunch of prison keys attached to his waist. Biana looked at him as the dwarf was passing him his lunch.

"Come on, Krikor, you have to eat your lunch first before you lead these people to Prentice's cell," the dwarf nagged at Krikor. "I have permission from Councillor Terik to trust them and not be suspicious of them."

While the dwarf was blabbering, Biana took the chance and swiftly stepped behind Madlen again, disappearing the second time now. Sophie felt her arm tap hers, and she became invisible too. Her arm was tense and Sophie knew it was going to be very awkward.

It was a weird feeling, being invisible. Sophie could see everyone else (except Biana, of course) but she couldn't see herself. When she stretched out her arms, she couldn't see them too. The warmth of Biana's hand guided her slowly towards the door. They slipped inside the room unnoticed and waited with bated breath as Krikor grumbled, snatched the lunch packet from the dwarf, and slammed the door in the others' faces, leaving Sophie and Biana trapped with him in the tight little room.

Krikor sat down gingerly on a wooden chair and started eating his lunch, which were weird-looking purple and green vegetables. Biana gripped Sophie's hand tighter to remind Sophie to be alert now.

_"The sedative will take five minutes or so to take effect, depending on how strong the creature's immune system is. For Krikor's case, it should be around seven minutes. Look at all the muscles!" _Soreas had told Sophie during their discussion.

Sophie held her breath as she counted the seconds one by one. Fifty seconds went by and Krikor was still gobbling down the vegetables. Sixty. Eighty. Hundred and twenty. Hundred and eighty. Two hundred and forty. Three hundred. Three hundred and sixty.

Four hundred and twenty. The time had come. Sophie and Biana watched as Krikor, having finished his lunch with great satisfaction, lay down for a minute to rest his body before tending to the elves outside.

The moment was filled with great tension, and Sophie's palms went warm and clammy, dripping with sweat. She hastily wiped them on her cape. Sophie hoped Krikor wouldn't smell the scent of her sweat. But...he was asleep now. Snoring in fact. Biana dislodged the key ring with no problem, and placed it carefully into her pocket.

Goblin had super senses. They had accomplished the first part of the mission. Now all they had to do was escape and join the others, who were probably outside Prentice's cell already, waiting impatiently for Sophie and Biana to come.

Sophie and Biana crept on tiptoes one by one to the awaiting door. When it was done, Biana made the door knob turn ever so slightly, and the door opened a crack, wide enough for the two of them to squeeze through. Sophie knew they had to be careful at this part. If they opened the door any further, the door would creak loudly and wake Krikor up. Then, good game.

Sophie went first, because she was smaller. Her slender body was no problem and she slid out of the room without any complication.

Biana bit her lip, and flattened herself sideways. She knew she had to try harder than Sophie, because she was the plumper one. She crept out sideways inch by inch, like a crab. Sophie on the other side held her hand to her pounding heart as Biana managed to come through after forty-five seconds. They breathed a sigh of relief. Biana reappeared, making Sophie reappear too. They then ran to Prentice's cell, with Sophie leading the way with her photographic memory.

The others were waiting outside the cell already. When Sophie turned her head around, she could see Prentice's drooling appearance through the glass. She resisted the urge not to gag and shiver and forced her voice to work. Her mind was still reeling and her heart was still palpitating.

"Whatever took you so long?" Soreas hissed at them as Biana handed the prison keys over to him. Sophie tried to ignore the snarls above them, where a monster was probably waiting for them. "But no matter. We can go in now. Fitz, Sophie, and Sir Kerlof will go inside during the healing and Madlen, Biana, Keefe, and I will stay outside as bodyguards."

"Great," Keefe mumbled. "I have to resort to the boring post of bodyguard." Everybody ignored him. Master Leto picked the right key and inserted the key slowly into the keyhole, turning it clockwise. The lock clicked and the door swung open.

He glanced at Sophie and Fitz. "Ready?"

Fitz and Sophie exchanged a glance with each other. "We're ready," They said together in unison. The time had finally come to heal Prentice. And it would not be an easy task at all.

They gathered together in a circle. Sophie resisted the strong temptation to look at Prentice. She shuddered when a projectile of spit landed near her. Fitz laughed and gestured her to come closer to him.

Sophie's traitorous heart missed a beat when she shuffled closer to Fitz. Wasn't she strong? Why was she still having this stupid crush on Fitz?

Master Leto glared at the both of them, and they both flushed red.

"Whatever," He said, snorting. "I don't care about the silly romance youngsters always have. It is the time for serious matters. We are about to enter Prentice's mind. Remember, it will be different from the mind healing on Fintan, as Prentice's mind is much, much stronger, because he is a Keeper. So, his mind will still be a tiny bit conscious, even though his mind is 99.9% broken already. Remember when I said there was a part of the brain where Keepers keep intact?"

Sophie and Fitz nodded.

"Well, that part will still be, if we happen to chance upon it. And we shall use that nook, to heal him to his normal self. Are any of your minds feeling weary? If Fitz's one is, then I can take over. But if Sophie's one is, I cannot."

"What? Why? Biased much?" Sophie protested indignantly. Master Leto glared daggers at her.

"Because you are the only one who could heal minds. If we had someone who possessed the same ability, we would have already done so ages ago, when most of his mind was still fighting to not succumb to the darkness." He sighed, and there was suddenly a tinge of weariness in his voice, and some emotion behind his eyes. Sophie decided not to push him. "But...is your mind okay?" He asked Fitz.

Fitz nodded. "Yeah."

Master Leto nodded back in approval. "Very good. So, we shall now begin-there's absolutely no time to lose."

Sophie walked over to Prentice, hesitating when the drool spilled on the ground near her. Maybe...

She squeezed her eyes and thought of all the peaceful, tranquil moments she could think of. She and Iggy grazing on the fields of Havenfield. Fitz. Dex. Keefe. Biana. Their friendship. When the calmness gathered around in a bright aura, she inflicted the calmness into Prentice's mind.

_Calm, _she told Prentice gently, like how she would treat Silveny. _It's alright._

Prentice's body stopped shaking, and the drool hung from his mouth. Sophie's shoulders relaxed.

"That was superb, Sophie," Master Leto praised her. Warmth filled Sophie's heart, melting some of the ice that had frozen around it. She began to feel better, even if it was only a little bit better.

Maybe being cold wasn't the only solution.

Sophie faced Prentice again, now with a lighter heart.

When she had first heard about Prentice, she had been under the impression that he was her father.

Well, even if it wasn't true, she was still going to believe that for this healing session, and put all her trust in him.

Prentice would be proud that the Moonlark had come so far.

Sophie took a deep breath and placed her fingers onto Prentice's cold temples. With Fitz as her guide, she thought no further and plunged straightaway into the never ending abyss of Prentice's mind.

* * *

**Question: This has nothing to do with the fanfic, but have you checked out the new official drawings for Jensi and Marella? They were posted not long ago by Shannon Messenger, and the geeky artist in me just gushed at the lovely drawings! Check them out and tell me what do you think of them! And yes, Marella will make her next appearance soon...;)**


	51. Chapter 53

**Word count: 1,898 words.**

**Let's just say...This isn't my favourite chapter.**

**I had trouble writing it and I kept asking myself, "Now what should I do?" Not at all like me when I write chapters. I write chapters at a very fluent pace, and I don't ever get writers' block (yes, I don't. Don't act so shocked) so it was really surprising when I struggled with this chapter.**

**It's not that anything really drastic happens or something, but I just don't like writing about people's minds. Shannon Messenger does it so well that I have to learn some of her "inside of the mind writing style" from her. Otherwise it's all mine. Though I have to admit that the ending of this chapter makes no sense even to me. **

**But the next few chapters are going to be fun to write, as something big is going to happen to Sophie. Don't worry, not really THAT big, but it's character development BIG. Haha. Get it? That sort of chapter is what I love to write the most! But I'll manage with the confusing mind chapters thingy. ;)**

**pen. edge: It's very kind of you to wait for the next chapter in excitement, but I don't think I did really well for this chapter and you might be confused and irritated. Sorry. And thanks! :)**

**daringwolf2000: Oh yes, the new pictures of Jensi and Marella seriously are awesome...And Wylie's out too now!**

**A person: Well, about your question, I know it seems weird for Sophie to go cold warm cold warm all the time...but yanno, mood swing. She's going through a lot of stuff and development, and she doesn't know how to act strong but warm at the same time. So she's kind of adjusting to her new personality and how she'll scrape through, I hope that makes sense...:/**

**ForeverFreeFall: Well, the pictures aren't really in a site together. I guess you can find them on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter, and find Shannon Messenger's account. For Fb, Insta, Twitter, just scroll through her profile until you find them, and Pinterest: Find her, and go to the board that is named KEEPER Extras. The pictures will be there. And Thanks, you're my biggest fan? I'm sure of it too! Thanks for the love!**

**Keeper update: Wylie official art is out now! **

**Keeper update 2): The 1st teaser of Neverseen has come out! The quote is: "It was time to fight fire with fire." :P How mysterious...**

Prentice's mind was exactly like what Sophie had experienced before. Cold. Dark. Empty. Thick scratchy black prodded at her mental barriers. She tried to fight back, but to no avail. The relentless horrible shadows still found a way to seep through. Blurred, quick flashes of images ran through Sophie's mind, and in one, she thought she could see Wylie, laughing with Cyrah.

It was too painful to watch.

_Sophie?_ Fitz asked, transmitting into her mind, _you alright there?_

Sophie managed a nod and pressed in deeper to the bottom of Prentice's mind-like there was a bottom at all. The twisted thoughts of a twisted mind-nothing Sophie could comprehend. She felt panic twist in her gut as butterflies with wings with gigantic creepy eyes flew past her and grey trees came alive, their long branches reaching for Sophie. Sophie shut her eyes and inflicted calm on herself. Strangely, it worked better than the techniques that humans came up with. She blew out a breath and transmitted four words over and over again-just like she had done once upon a time:

_I am Sophie Foster._

Suddenly, a stream of golden light cut through the darkness and more memories of Prentice came rushing through. A pair of teal eyes. A voice whispered, "No reason to worry." Laughing. Running. Promises. Healing. Everything came out in pauses and breaks, and Sophie had no idea what to do next. Fitz was feeling as unsure as she was. Sophie knew if they followed the stream of light, they could uncover something else that had been hidden for a long, long time. But it could lead to dangerous things too.

Sophie took a deep breath and dived into the lower part of the abyss, catching the stream of light with her own hands, imagining that it was solid and nothing else. Sophie and Fitz travelled across Prentice's mind until the beam of light ended. A graceful, black swan dived beside them and a white swan with fluffy feathers landed beside the black swan and its webbed feet turned into claws, poised for battle. Upon seeing the white swan, the black swan did the same too and growled at it, so unlike its usual graceful self. The two of them fought until the white swan won and pulverized the black swan into shreds and a pool of red blood. Sophie tried hard not to puke as the white swan groomed its feathers and flew away, flapping its wings strongly.

Sophie transmitted to Fitz, _Let's follow the white swan. What do you think just happened?_

_Black swan= The Black Swan_

_White swan= The Neverseen_

That was what Fitz transmitted. Sophie bit her lip as she realised the impending doom of the Black Swan. Then she used her telekinesis power to stop the white swan. She grabbed on tightly to the white swan's tail and flew away with it, with Fitz in tow.

This was definitely something new. Prentice, somehow unconsciously knew that Sophie had joined the Black Swan. Maybe he was willing to share more. But why would Prentice show her this...horrible thing? Sophie wondered as the white swan swooped into a grassland and blue sky. Sophie yelped and let go as the swan landed on the soft grass, which made Sophie want to sleep. She sternly told herself that this was a healing and she was in someone else's mind, so there was no time for sleeping. She collapsed into someone's lap. Blonde hair so very like hers curled onto her shoulder.

Sophie looked up with a start. Fitz just stayed silent.

_Jolie again._

_But she isn't my mother. Master Leto told me otherwise._

_Why is she still here?_

Jolie laughed, as if she had heard Sophie's thoughts. And this time, she spoke in clear and complete sentences. "Sophie, it'll be fine. You'll win the war. And he lied. I am your mother, Sophie."

_What?_ Jolie's words hit Sophie like a bullet train. Why would Master Leto lie to Sophie? He had been truthful when he was healing Sophie, the Black Swan didn't murder Jolie. So why would he lie that time? Sophie could still see their conversation unfolding so naturally.

_"__Who was Jolie?"_

_"__She was the daughter of Grady and Edaline."_

_"__No, I mean, who was she to me?"_

_"__To you? You think she's your mother."_

_"__So is she?"_

_"__No."_

It had ended so perfectly, without any flaws or acts. Master Leto had made it seem like the truth. Who exactly was telling the real truth? Master Leto...or Jolie?

Jolie sighed. "I wished I had treasured the times with Dad and Mum more. Hindsight is a dangerous game to play. I should've ran, not walked. Brant...Brant..." She lapsed into silence, and Sophie knew Jolie still loved Brant. And Brant still loved Jolie. That was exactly what she transmitted to her.

"He does? Well, I guess that's a good thing to hear," Jolie said, her voice turning bittersweet. "Sophie, please do not be fooled by love. I fell for that trap. I was blinded by love. What a...horrible thing. I really thought Brant and I were forever ever, and I used to say never say never. Turns out how wrong I am."

_I'm thirteen._

"Yes, and a lot of things can happen when you're just thirteen," Jolie sighed again. "Those evil villains made it wholly possible. Anyways, this piece of advice before you continue to heal Prentice."

She faced Sophie with proud, turquoise eyes that shone and misted with bitter feelings at the same time.

"My daughter," Jolie lisped. "Trust no one."

Sophie nodded, Jolie's words ringing inside her mind.

_Trust no one._

Jolie smiled and put two long, elegant fingers to her lips. She looked so fragile and weak as she whistled loudly. Suddenly, the same black swan from before swooped down and folded its winds around its good as new body.

Sophie gaped.

_But how?_

Jolie snapped her fingers and the swan knelt down, growing bigger and bigger until it was the size of a boat. "That was just an illusion," she explained. "I did not know if you knew the seriousness of this situation, so I wanted you to see how terrible the consequences could be if you messed up." She shot a pointed look at Sophie.

Sophie clenched her fists in determination. _I won't this time, _she promised Jolie as she and Fitz slid their legs over the swan's gigantic body and steadied themselves as the swan took off into the air.

"Do me proud, Sophie," Sophie could hear Jolie say before they escaped out of the fluffy world into the world of darkness once again, this time with a black swan to help them. Fitz wrapped his arms around her waist as Sophie grabbed on to the swan's neck.

_Where to go now?_ Sophie wondered as she thought.

It was time to find the place where Prentice kept 0.1% of his consciousness.

She closed her eyes and summoned all the mental energy she possessed in her mind, drawing it into a glowing aura. She held the aura until she saw a flash of memory that was larger than the usual hopeless ones.

_Now! _Sophie thought as she thrust the mental energy at the image and held on to a string of the energy and Fitz's hand. They spun and spun and bumped hard into something.

_Ow..._Sophie groaned mentally as she rubbed her forehead painfully. She lifted her gaze up to what she had bumped into.

She and Fitz gasped loudly when they saw the amazing sight.

It was nothing at first sight-just a dull mental barrier that was terribly strong. However, when Sophie focused some of her mental energy onto the wall, millions of tiny light blue pinpricks appeared where she had contacted with, and she felt a strong repulsion rebound her back. Fitz caught her as they fell down from the swan. The swan grunted and flew away as fast as lightning.

_We'll have to break this mental barrier. I'm very sure that this is the place Master Leto told us about. Fitz, could you help too?_

_Okay, _Fitz agreed.

Sophie flashbacked to the time when she and Alden had combined their forces together. It had been strong enough to clear the fog, but not enough to stop Fintan from controlling the memory. And he wasn't even a Keeper.

What hope did they have with a strong, near-to-Ancient Keeper whose mind had been broken for a very long time already?

But Sophie knew they had to try. It was the key to everything. But trying wasn't enough either.

They had to give their all.

Sophie gathered her mental energy around her again. She felt slightly weak and knew that it was taking its toll on her.

_Ready? _Sophie asked Fitz.

_Ready. _Fitz replied. _On the count of three._

_Three..._

_Two..._

_One..._

_GO!_

Sophie did the most mind-wrecking brain push she had ever did in her life, and it combined with Fitz's core energy. Mental energy and core energy didn't mix, so the two auras swirled around each other, faster and faster, until they hit the mental barrier.

The wall instantly lit up with a glowing blue light that illuminated Prentice's mind. Sophie's mouth went slack as she surveyed the queer scene that was happening around her. The wall glowed brighter-

Then dimmed and went out.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Sophie felt the hope drain out in her and her knees buckle. Fitz caught her before she fell to the ground.

A tear streaked down her cheek. She knew that had been their last chance. Her body was too tired, too weary to summon anymore energy now. Three brain pushes had taken a lot out of her.

And it had been for nothing.

Sophie sniffed, "I-" The wall suddenly lit up again, sparking the hope in Sophie's stomach the second time now. She felt a little energy return to her, and transmitted to Fitz, _Do you think we can try one last time?_

Fitz nodded. _Of course._

They sent the energy rolling towards the wall at a fast speed again. The wall glowed brighter and brighter until it was blinding.

So blinding.

Sophie shielded her eyes with her arms as the wall collapsed into a million pieces. A mysterious force seemed to attract Sophie to the core of the inside.

There were no words to describe the inner, deep part of the mind. Dull. Empty. But so bright at the same time, unlike the dark, dark mind that they had seen at the start of the healing.

In the center, rested a small, gleaming pond filled with silver liquid. Sophie felt the force pulling her towards the pond again.

There was something inside the pond. And she knew it.

Sophie had to get it.

Almost tripping and knocking Fitz down, she ran past him and inhaled through her mouth, taking a few more steps closer.

Closer to the edge of the lake.

It looked so tempting.

Whatever could be inside?

Sophie thought no further, and dived into the silver liquid.

The last thing she heard was Fitz crying out in her mind before she fell into a sleepy daze. The silver liquid started to fill her lungs, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was like her limbs were totally paralysed.

She was drowning.

She was going to die.

In Prentice's mind.

**Question: Do you think something is going to go wrong, either with Prentice's healing or Sora's rescue mission? I know the answer, but evil author is evil. Not going to give y'all spoilers.**


	52. Chapter 54

**Word count: 2,630. And haha, there's a part in this chapter that will be mentioned later in the next chapter. Well, I have no idea what's the next chapter gonna be like, but I think I have the rough thingy sketched out in my brain. Hope so. Ugh, how I hate writing mind thingy and breaking-into-exile-and-healing-Prentice thingy, but I guess what has to be done has to be done. But my favourite part to writ is coming next chapter, where we'll focus on the next thing-rescuing Sora! I have a feeling next chapter is going to be longer than this.**

**And when I flipped my laptop open and checked this story, I found out I had 161 reviews! Oh my god you know very well being me, I freaked out and did a happy dance around my house, shrieking in excitement. Yes, call me nerdy or what, but you couldn't NOT be happy when you find out people actually love your stories you write.**

**Here's the thing. I have no idea how this came into my head, but I was thinking hopefully: Hey! Maybe I could finish this and there's gonna be an end to this super long fanfiction! Now that I know THERE IS A FREAKING FIFTH BOOK (does another happy dance) I know there'll be a cliffhanger ending. Bet on it, yo. Look what happened in the 3rd book. That ending, omg. Of course SwMessenger would make another dastardly ending. And I have an idea what the fifth book title is, but I'm not sure. I want to hear everybody's opinions, so I'm going to put that as this chapter's question. Let your creative juices FLOW!**

**And shout-out to The Glitter Ninja for the story favourite! Sending lots of love. :)))**

**daringwolf2000: Oh, Sophie will definitely make it. Don't worry; anyways without the main character the show can't go on but it's otherwise with other characters *wink, wink* Alright, I think, I've revealed too much...Thanks for the review anyway! :)  
**

**ForeverFreeFall: Y'know what I love too? Your made-up words! Roald Dahl used to do that, and so do you, and that makes me love you even more! (But I can't :(( ) And I cannot be more grateful for your endless support! ILYSM! :3**

**A person: Woah, that is quite a big theory! I don't really think Prentice is working for the Neverseen, but that's your view of things! In my mind, I think he was pulling Sophie into the pool to show her something. And don't worry if you're evil! I hate to admit it, but I'm evil too and I totally know how you think!**

**Pen. edge: First. Oh my god. You don't know how heartening it is to receive a review saying "I love your story" or "Your writing is amazing"! You totally made my day and I'm super happy to say that you are one of my favourite authors too! No kidding here! :)**

**twinkletoestbh: Can't believe you reviewed 3 times, that totally made my day too! Okay. Thanks for waiting and liking the story! Two points to address here:**

**1\. I really had no idea if Krikor was a dwarf or a goblin. I read the part in Exile, but there seemed to be no sign of whether Krikor's a dwarf or a goblin, so I just went my own way and made him a goblin. Or maybe I just skipped that part. Anyway, thanks for pointing that out-I'll reread to see if you're right or not.  
**

**2\. About Sophie's new character...*sighs loudly* The truth is, if you read my author's notes, you would know I'm not too happy about what I did too. But I guess, it's what my mind tells me to do. I know, SwMessenger says she trusts her characters about what they would do and I wish I could be so...um ...touching too, but they're not my characters. And I'm making a point clear for both 1 and 2: this isn't the real deal, it's just a fanfiction written by an almost teenager and I can't go as deep as the author. I don't know what Sophie thinks, so I'm just following my heart and mind to tell the story in my version. If you know what I mean.**

**ferntailwarriors: Yeah, Jin is Sora's twin! Thanks for liking my fanfic! :) And I promise you you are not weird! And even if you are, it's okay! Everyone's weird in their own way and I totally sympathize with you!**

**Warriors: Okay. Alright. It's okay :)**

**The Glitter Ninja: Thank you so much! I am so glad you like it, and even obsessed with it! Honestly, I thought no one would fully love a story written by a mere soon-to-be-teenager, but it seems like I'm wrong! Thank you so much again! :)**

**hgkjgg: Okay...**

**gni: Well, that's interesting! :) But you found out next chapter, didn't you? :)**

**jgv: Are you ferntailwarriors? And don't worry too much, everything's gonna be alright eventually! I promise you! :)**

* * *

Bubbles escaped rapidly from a small opening in Sophie's tiny mouth, while she sank and sank deeper and deeper into the silver liquid.

Her system began to shut down slowly and no matter how hard Sophie seemed to fight back, the liquid found a way to fill her throat with the horrible taste of rotten animals. Sophie choked, allowing more liquid to enter her mouth. She was losing air.

She needed to think clearly.

Sophie forced her eyes to open, and look around. With the remaining energy she possessed, Sophie focused her gut energy around her, using the power of telekinesis to push the liquid away from her, forming a protective barrier. Suddenly, she could breathe again. Sophie coughed and choked for air inside while fumbling under her wrinkled cape for the bottle of starlight. She pulled it out in triumph and held it around her.

The emerald-green glow lit up her surroundings, and below her, Sophie could make out a dark, lurking, mysterious object in the gloom. The familiar force of attraction tugged her toward it again. Sophie hesitated for a split second, then pushed herself and the barrier downwards until the unknown object made itself seen to Sophie's awestruck brown eyes.

It was indeed a mysterious looking object. To Sophie's eyes, it seemed like a wondrous-looking object which shone with a bright light that blinded Sophie's eyes. Sophie shielded them with her arms, and when the light finally faded, could she bring herself to look at it again.

It was a gleaming necklace with a silver round pendant. Memories rushed back to Sophie like a rushing torrent of water, and she recognised it at first sight.

It was a Markchain.

Lady Cadence had shown her hers when aromark was discovered on Sophie's flesh. When rubbed against the skin, the skin would give off a bright green glow. A Markchain was a product of the ogres', an enzyme which acted like an ecosystem. If the ogres detect someone who was walking in their city without the essenseal on them, they would instantly know that that person was an intruder, as they could detect the enzymes on them.

What was it doing here in Prentice's mind?

Sophie didn't think further, and reached out to grab the Markchain. Once her fingers got into contact with the silver pendant, a tingling sensation went through Sophie's body immediately, and she was sent shooting up, until her nose hit fresh air and her mouth opened to breathe.

A relieved Fitz ran over to her. _Sophie! Thank goodness you're alive!_ He breathed. _You were gone for one minute, and that was when I decided to jump in and search for you. As I was about to do that, here you are!_

He pulled her out of the water. Sophie collapsed on one of the weird-looking rocks, and squeezed the silver liquid out of her hair.

Great. She wouldn't be surprised if it had already dyed her hair to a shimmering silver.

But something Fitz had said caught her attention. _Wait, what? I was only gone for a minute? It can't be possible! It felt like I was gone for hours!_

She remembered herself weakly counting the passing seconds when she was deprived of air.

Fitz shook his head. _Nah...I was counting the seconds too, and you were gone 63 seconds before you surfaced again._

Sophie's head spun, and she grabbed on to her rock for support. Her hands and legs and body, everything felt weak and deprived of energy. There could only be one explanation.

_Time is different in this part of the mind. _

_Sophie? Is something wrong?_

Sophie explained her theories to him. The silence that came after that was overbearing.

Fitz managed a smile, then transmitted, _Well, then we can't afford to lose any time, right? Everyone's still counting on us._

_Right, _Sophie answered Fitz determinedly. She peeled her hair back behind so she wouldn't have to see if she had silver hair like a granny or not. _Oh! When I was inside the lake, I found this thing._

She held up the Markchain, letting it dangle from her fingers.

Fitz stared at it in wonder. _What is that?_

_It's a Markchain, _Sophie started, then carried on explaining what purpose a Markchain served.

Fitz whistled. _Ogres sure are smart. Their biochemistry is simply pure brilliance!_

Sophie ignored that, and transmitted to Fitz, _Well, I have no idea what this is for, and why it is here in Prentice's mind, but we are missing the main objective here. Since we have already broken into here, I guess I can start proper healing for a Keeper._

Fitz agreed, and kept the Markchain in his pocket as Sophie gazed around the enclosed area of Prentice's mind. The mental barrier had built itself back, preventing any madness from seeping through. Sophie scanned the area again, and found a small hole entrenched in the ground, where the broken memory that had led them there lay, deprived of energy. Sophie decided to start there.

She headed over to the hole, and stroked the memory daringly, inflicting some warmth towards it. The memory grew and grew, until it was the size of the hole.

Sophie smiled and shut her eyes, gathering more happiness and love. She thought of Grady and Edaline. She thought of Fitz, Keefe, Dex, and even Biana, who had fought with her. She thought of all the happy times she had with Sandor, and the warmth that had spread in her when people bravely defended her. She thought of her, Grady and Edaline hugging one another and saying "I love you" until the sun set. She thought of all the proud moments when Iggy flew, or when Silveny spread her beautiful wings and took off into the sky with Greyfell.

The warmth, joy, love, and pride grew and grew until it even melted the last shard of ice encasing Sophie's heart. So strong.

Sophie inflicted the warmth onto the memory, and it grew and grew and grew until Sophie could see Wylie and Cyrah laughing and hugging Prentice tightly.

She thought of Wylie, snapping at her and almost breaking down at the memory of his father. She thought of Wylie wanting to see his father, unbroken again. She thought of Cyrah, who had faded and lost her life. She thought of Tiergan, who had ignored Alden because of Prentice. She thought of Alden, and the pain in his eyes when he saw Prentice's broken form.

The memories gathered around one another and swirled into a spinning giro ball. Sophie lost control and the ball of memories broke out of her mind and dispersed into millions of memories that radiated warmth and love.

Sophie fell back due to the overbearing strong force, and felt a smile tugging at her lips. Fitz came over and took her hand. The two of them watched the amazing sight.

The warmth and the memories fused with each other, and floated around the enclosed area of Prentice's mind in such a frenzy that the mental barrier broke into a billion shards.

The happy memories burst out of their prison and expelled all the blackness and madness with their brightness, turning darkness into light. The other memories floating outside the area hopelessly pieced together into complete images and streamed into their respective places in Prentice's mind.

Sophie grabbed Fitz's hand and pulled themselves out of the now healed mind. She had her eyes shut the whole time and even when bright light hit her eyelids, she didn't even blink as she was simply too exhausted to do so.

"Sophie?" A voice pricked Sophie's consciousness. She opened her eyes reluctantly and saw Master Leto and Fitz looking at her proudly. She winced at the bright light exposed to her pupils.

Fitz pulled her into a hug. "You did it."

Sophie hesitated for a moment, then returned the hug, smiling, "It was the hardest one yet." She had to admit that.

"True that," Master Leto's voice made them both pull away. "But...now comes the hard part."

Sophie's jaw dropped to the ground. "You mean...the mind healing wasn't even a challenge?"

Master Leto simply inclined his head, and Sophie felt ready to collapse.

"We have to get Prentice out of Exile without Krikor noticing," Master Leto said calmly. "And this time it's going to be hard, because Krikor is sure to recognize Prentice as a criminal, and Councillor Terik's trust in us wouldn't even help us get away for half of it."

"We could leap Prentice out of here, then get Biana to put another-" A sudden happening stopped Sophie's sentence.

_Did you say me? _An unfamiliar voice rang through Sophie's mind. Sophie's eyes flew wide open, and when she looked at Fitz and Master Leto, they were wearing the same shocked expression on their faces.

Sophie whirled around. Sure enough, Prentice's blue eyes were fully open, and dried-up drool caked his lips as he spread them open slowly and gave them a small smile.

The sight of that was enough to make Sophie scream.

* * *

Madlen, Dex, Keefe, Biana, and Soreas peeked into the prison room. They were doing their own things when an ear-piercing scream filled the air abruptly and broke their concentration.

"Dude!" complained Keefe. "Keep it soft, would ya?" He swiveled his eyes to look at Biana. Her face was flushed and her teal eyes glimmered. There was a sheen to her wavy chocolate brown hair that he had never ever noticed before-

"What," Biana said in a flat voice, looking away quickly. Keefe was stunned. Why had he seen Biana in _that_ way? It didn't make sense. He liked Sophie. And yes, he did.

So why was he acting this way?

"Whatever," Keefe muttered, taking a few steps into the room. "Foster, my boy, old dude, you managing well there?"

Both Fitz and Master Leto glared daggers at Keefe.

"Don't call me 'old dude'," Master Leto grumbled.

"And don't call me your boy," Fitz retorted, a blush creeping up his cheeks.

Sophie ignored their protests and turned to Keefe and company, all business-like. "Right," she said sharply. "We have a problem."

She shrugged her shoulder, gesturing to Prentice.

Keefe, Biana, Dex, Soreas, and Madlen directed their gaze to the now-healed Prentice.

"He's healed!" Madlen gasped in wonder.

"Yes, I do have a perfect track record with mind healings," said Sophie nonchalantly, and her face was emotionless as she faced Prentice. "Though after a sentence he wouldn't speak at all. Instead, he is just staring into empty, blank space. He wouldn't even move."

"His mind was broken for years," Soreas lisped quietly, staring at the Keeper, "and I think he might miss his family. I don't know much about how you heal minds, but you do transmit images of his family into his mind to let him remember, am I absolutely right?"

Sophie and Fitz nodded.

Soreas managed a small smile, then it vanished as he said quietly, "I guess he misses him."

_Him._

Sophie's jaw tightened. She knew who Soreas was referring to.

_Wylie._

She personally had no grudge against Wylie but it was completely the other way around with _him._

Sophie was sure he hated her.

Because at that time, Sophie couldn't heal Prentice.

But now she had, and she hoped it would do both father and son good to let them see each other for the first time in forever.

* * *

Master Leto interrupted the tense moment by clearing his throat. He stole a quick glance at Prentice, then turned back to the crowd who had gathered in the room.

"Alright then. We shall bring Prentice to Wylie," he said in defeat. "But we still have a lot of things to do before that-"

Suddenly, an anguished cry erupted from behind, and Biana's knees buckled, causing her to collapse on the ground loudly.

"Krikor," Soreas hissed venomously, as the goblin stomped into the area. Sophie yelped and grabbed on to Keefe.

He gave her a hopeless look. "What? Why are you holding on to me? I'm impossible, okay? Uh, go find someone who can watch your back without cracking jokes, like Fitz-"

Sophie was confused by his statement but had no chance to shoot any questions when Krikor barged in.

"Krikor, what brings you here?" Master Leto said with absolute tranquility. Sophie shot him an unbelievable and shocked look. Krikor was probably going to tear them down any second sooner, and he was concerned about _making small talk?_

"Are you serious-" Dex started (looked like he had the same thinking as her) but Krikor cut him off sharply.

"How did you get in here?" he growled, looking at them with suspicious, wary eyes.

Master Leto shrugged, and started fishing in his pocket. Sophie's body was as taut as a rope and she could feel the tension making her heart palpitate furiously. Her heart hammered in her ears and goosebumps dimpled her arms, making a chill creep down her spine. A trickle of cold sweat appeared on the side of her forehead and started to streak down her cheek.

After what seemed like an eternity to Sophie (but actually was only seven seconds), Master Leto pulled out the ring of prison keys. He watched Krikor's small almond-shaped eyes widen in disbelief.

"How did you get my prison keys?" he demanded, shaking his head. Master Leto just watched Krikor's eyes follow his keys. After three seconds, he threw them into a far corner of the room, grabbed Prentice, and shouted: "Go!" He suddenly vanished, and so did Soreas, Madlen and Biana. Sophie remembered their training back in the Black Swan base and mustered all her concentration, melting into the shadows too.

She took off running, lifting her legs so high she thought they might break from the strain. She sprinted across the room and flung out a hand to stop the door from knocking into her face. With that, she ran out of the room.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she glided towards the stairs. She could see Krikor giving chase and she had no idea where her friends are. Krikor was running really fast. If she didn't buck up, he would catch up with her. Then. Game. Over.

She didn't have time to think as she skidded up the stairs, trying to make minimum sound at all times. She didn't want anyone to hear her rampaging like a wild Verminion up the spiral stairs.

At the top of the stairs, she so wanted to pause for a second and catch her breath but she knew she had no time to lose. Sophie jabbed the Balefire key into the door and swung it open, taking off at the speed of lightning.

Her sharp eyes caught a movement in the air and she knew one of her friends was over at the sponge where they caught people when they came into Exile.

Then she heard Master Leto's mental voice scream in her head.

_Sophie, take the black crystal over at the beaker and leap us all out now! We're counting on you!_

Sophie leaped for the black crystal and claimed it in her hands.

_Quick, before the dwarf senses the crystal!_

Her friends reappeared. Sophie held the crystal to the light and let the light shine on them.

When they were on the verge of exiting Exile, Master Leto's voice rang out in her mind again.

_Throw the crystal away from your hands! Now!_

Sophie used all of her power, both physical and mentally to push the crystal away from her grasp. It took a lot of time, but it was only a split second as the crystal was wrung away from her hands.

She found herself staring in dark aquamarine eyes before they were whisked away in the light.

* * *

**Alright I have 2 questions.**

**Q1) Who do you think is the mysterious one staring at Sophie at the ending ^^**

**(Pretty obvious, yanno)**

**Q2) What do you think will be the title of the fifth book? **

**:)**


	53. Chapter 55

**Hi guys! I'm back, in full force! Bam! Okay, maybe I'm a little hyper now, but that doesn't matter, 'cause that means I can write with thousands of words flowing in my mind!**

**And thousands of words it is! Longest chapter in this story, yo. Word Count: 4,233 words! Nobody's going to stop me, muahahaha! Okay, I really am hyper today.**

**I really want to thank all of the wonderful people that have so patiently read, like, 50+ chapters of my story and loved it. I really thought no one would really love my stories (have I told you I'm just a kid -_-) and review so kindly, "Hey, I really like your stories" or "I love your writing" or "You are an amazing writer!" It may not seem like much, but it really makes my day and most importantly, convince me I really have the capability to be who I am (author). I know it's a tough road (I read Shannon Messenger's story of how KEEPER was published), really tough, but I really love writing and I want to share my stories with everyone so that they can enjoy them. Well, enjoy them or not, I'm just glad we all have the ability to tell stories, no matter good or bad or average. I love you guys so much and thanks for coming on this journey on me (since March) and sharing your thoughts and opinions with me! :)**

**Okay, whatever happened to my hyper mood? Oh yeah one more thing. For those who are wondering when me and copic's story would be updated, I'm sorry, but it won't be any time soon, as copic's on holiday (school in Malaysia's nearly ended), and I seriously can't write the story without her. I mean, like, seriously. That's our story and it would be unfair. Anyways even so I can't hack into her account and publish the new chapter right? Hahaha!**

**daringwolf2000: A1) Sorry...But you are wrong! It's not Krikor. Ohhh...okay, but thanks anyway for answering my question! Not everyone does and I'm really grateful. A2) I have absolutely no idea what's the title of the fifth book, but I hope it's something related to swans. 'Cause that's what I think it is. The Black Swan...Swan Song...or something like that, yanno? ;) Hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you so much for reviewing! :)))**

**Guest: I know your answer is for Chapter 3, but...CONGRATULATIONS! You answered correctly for both chapters! (Such a coincidence!) Thanks for reviewing! :)**

**Guest 2: OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU okay? :)))**

**Guest 3: Yay for wow! :D**

**twinkletoestbh: Yeesss. Aquamarine eyes indeed...Hehehehe...Yeah, I think you know who it is!**

**Guest 4: Yeah, you're right! Smart!**

**XxLemonCupcakexX: Yeah, duh, this is fanfiction. net so this is a fanfiction and is not written by Shannon Messenger. (I bet her writing will be much better than mine, oh my gosh -_-) Oh, and I did a happy dance around the room when you said I have good writing skills! You made my day and have a lemon cupcake ;)**

**ferntailwarriors:You reviewed 2 times and I am so happy. Okay, not just because of that, but still! An author can have happy reviews, right? Oh, and I can't guarantee NO CLIFFIES because...ummmmm...the chapter just pours out its plot while I am writing and I have no way to control it...Besides, who doesn't love cliffies? So much tension! And ummm...last chapter didn't seem much of a cliffie to me...Don't shout at me...;) Well, yeah, I have heard of Warriors (a lot actually) and I so want to read it but I can't find the first book and it's all so confusing! I didn't know Warriors had spin-offs and that was confusing too. Sorry :( But I'll wish you best luck! Lemme guess, Mapleshade is a cat's name? (Don't yell at me if I'm so wrong...)  
**

**ForeverFreeFall: YES another person who got the first question correct. Yes it is one of those three! Well, for the fifth book title, I think it has to do with something about swans, yanno? The Black Swan (like you said), Swan Song (no coincidence intended ;D), something between those titles. I do hope it's Swan Song, because then we'll all be going hyper and like, "OH GOSH COPIC IS A FORTUNE TELLER". But most probably, not. :(( And I tried to say ****cliffaliciously cliffy cliffhanger five times fast and I failed terribly. That is one fantastic tongue twister! And if someone **  
**asks me if I need ice for that burn, then sure as day, I'll answer the ice question with, "Nah, I'm cool enough." ! ;D  
**

**pen. edge: Haha, your name always disappears so I have to add a space in between full stop and edge! And oh my gosh people are so smart nowadays! I mean like, half of them including you would point out something that's going to be mentioned in the next next chapter! (which is, the next chapter from here o.O ) I mean, Keefe telling Sophie off. Maybe it sounded a little OOC but that's okay. Thanks for pointing that out! And when I read that my writing was an inspiration for yours, I nearly freaked out from excitement. I never thought my writing would be good enough to be an INSPIRATION to others! And I really have to thank you too for bringing so much happiness to my life!  
**

**Thank you so much for all the love and support and I love you guys!**

_You won't escape next time._

The five words that came from nowhere rang in Sophie's mind as she shut her eyes and her legs buckled, landing on the hard ground ungracefully.

Pain blossomed hugely in her knees, travelling around her body along with weariness at the speed of light.

Sophie instinctively cried out in agony and her eyes flew wide open. Bright, blinding light danced across her pupils, making her wince and shield her eyes with her rough hands.

When she finally dared to open her eyes and lift her head, she found herself in a strange room-if you could call it a room. The walls were hexagon-shaped and made out of thousands of tiny hexagons bricked together, glowing and gleaming of a bright electric-yellow light.

_No wonder it was so bright, _Sophie mused, but her heart was filled with pure panic. Where were the others? Didn't they leap together with her?

Her heart was hammering in her ears and her breathing was fast and ragged, but Sophie forced herself to calm herself down by inflicting calm on her. Her mind felt exhausted like the rest of her. Soreness radiated in her head as Sophie replayed the scene before she appeared here.

A spinning album of blurry images sent Sophie weirdly dizzy as she replayed the mental video over and over again until she heard something behind her back.

"Are you blind or what? I'm right here."

Sophie whirled around in disbelief. She knew that voice. So familiar. She hadn't heard it in a very, very, very long time.

Sophie spun around to meet a pair of pale aquamarine eyes that were filled with endless emotion. A curl of dark auburn hair covered part of her eyelids.

Sophie felt a relieved smile creep up her lips but her heart was raging with confusion. "Sora? How come you're here?"

Sora just merely shrugged her shoulders and gave Sophie a small smile.

* * *

Sora's appearance had changed since the last time Sophie had seen her. Her face had become darker, tanner, and dirtier. It was also slashed with pale red scars that ran scarily across her cheeks, showing that she had probably been through a lot of torture from the Neverseen. Her cheeks were flushed with red and her red-brown hair was frizzy and in the wrong places, which was pulled up into a messy bun, which had several thick strands of auburn hair already falling through the confinement Sora had put to gather her bothersome hair. But her eyes never changed. They were exactly the same since the first time Sophie met Sora.

"Never thought you could break through security to meet me," Sora remarked with an amused lopsided half-smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. Her voice had changed too, as Sophie could hear it was slightly cracked and blunt, like she had been overusing it.

Then Sophie wondered how many times she had screamed her throat sore to get out.

Sophie looked around their bright environment, then shook her head at Sora. "Sora, I'm so glad you're still alive...We healed Prentice, but-" She was interrupted abruptly by Sora.

"Wait," Sora said, a look of disbelief on her face. "Repeat that again. Say it one more time. I couldn't have heard that right-my ears must be playing tricks on me! So, what did you say?"

"Um...We healed Prentice," Sophie echoed, a little disgruntled by her over-enthusiasm. Did Sora underestimate her abilities? She had a perfect track record with healings!

Sora squealed softly. "Oh my gosh, that is good news. So was the mission accomplished perfectly?" Her eyes shone of hope and pride and Sophie found it hard to look away.

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat. "Well, almost. There were two problems. For one, after we healed Prentice, Prentice just spoke one short sentence and then fell unconscious again. But he's healed. He really is, so I don't really know what's the problem there. For two, we were almost caught by Krikor, and something weird happened when we were light leaping out of here...I don't really know myself..."

Sora scrunched her eyebrows together. "Describe the whole thing to me. Don't look so worried, the guards never come here. You sure as day can take your time."

Her voice was filled with so much conviction that Sophie couldn't decline her request. "Oh...Alright then. Um...When we were...I think it's easier to just transmit the scene into your mind so you can further understand the whole thing through my eyes. With sound effects, of course." She joked a little, and was surprised with herself. A laugh caught in her throat. How long had she felt like that before she went cold? A long time, of course. A warm feeling spread through her body, melting the ice around her heart. She hated to admit it but she really did miss that feeling.

A picture of scornful Biana looking coolly at her and their last real conversation to her rang through her mind disturbingly.

_"__You know, it's good and all that you've changed, but...there is no need to act so harsh and all. Just don't crack under pressure, and stay strong. It isn't fun to hang out with you now. Sure, the old Sophie was stressed too, but the new one doesn't like to have fun at all and is totally serious and cold. I miss the old Sophie." Biana said earnestly, her teal eyes boring into Sophie, making Sophie want to squirm._

_Sophie felt something leak into her heart. "Biana..." She was at a loss of words. How could she explain to Biana? That if she wasn't careful, people would get hurt again, like Kenric and Estelle? That if she wasn't totally serious, she would freak out and mess up the whole plan again? She didn't know how to act warm but serious at the same time. She was narrowed and stayed on one path only._

_Biana looked away. "It's fine, I guess. You feel responsible. But mark my words-people do not like harsh people. At all." _

"Sophie?" Sora said anxiously, tugging at Sophie's arm. The warmth made Sophie flinch and stiffen, the melted ice freezing around her heart again. "Are you alright?"

Sophie said sharply-probably more sharply than she meant to, "Yes." She ignored Sora's stunned expression and the heaviness weighing down her heart and continued, "I'm ready. You?"

Sora nodded vigorously. "I was born ready," she said confidently, holding her head up, a reassuring smile plastered on her cracked lips. Courage radiated off her and washed over Sophie like a cold blanket.

Sophie wished she could be like Sora. Confident, but warm and fun at the same time, even at the most serious moments.

If Sora could do it, why couldn't she? What was so wrong with her that she couldn't do it?

_Because she was different._

In a bad way.

_She was a freak._

_Freak. Freak. Freak._

Sophie shook her head and took a deep breath, pushing the negative words out of her mind harshly. "Well, here goes," she warned Sora, and closed her eyes, letting her shoulders relax.

She pushed the video she had been replaying over and over again into Sora's mind. She wasn't able to find anything that could explain why she had landed here without her friends.

Two heads were better than one. Maybe Sora could figure this out.

Sophie shook her head as she opened her eyes and watched Sora enviously. In her eyes, Sora looked so perfect. Unlike herself. Sophie dived into a pool of negativity and felt like she could stay there forever. Hot tears pricked her corneas and she shook her head again, more vigorously this time. No! No! She couldn't cry! Especially right in front of Sora! She must stay strong!

That seemed near to impossible right now. Sophie sunk her head into her hands, burying it further.

She didn't know how long she stayed in that sad position, but after what seemed like an eternity, Sophie felt a hand tap her shoulder gently.

"Sophie?" Sora said softly. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The warmth and care in her voice finally pushed Sophie off the edge of the blade she had been teetering on for such a long time, and she broke down crying. She tried to hold her tears back, but once the floodgates were opened so widely, she couldn't even close an inch back. Tears streamed down her cheeks endlessly, and soon her face was dirtied with not only dirt, but tears. She felt like the emotions she had been bottling inside of her so long had finally been released, and released in the wildest way possible. She knew the sound of her crying could attract the guards to the prison, but she didn't give anything about that anymore. She sobbed her heart out as Sora put her arm around her comfortingly.

"Shhh," Sora soothed Sophie like she was a bawling baby, patting her back gently, sending vibes of calm rippling into Sophie's heart. "It's okay. Now, can you tell me what's been bothering you?"

She sounded so much like her human mother that Sophie squeezed a few more tears out as she explained in a choking voice about her new personality bothering her, Biana's expression on her face and her words, and everything negative that had irked her until she nearly cried. The negative emotions that had been circulating around in her heart.

"E-Everyone has been so k-kind to me," she admitted. "Even Biana tried to be nice to me, b-but I rejected her kindness and that made her give me a c-cold shoulder. Whenever a kind gesture was given to me, I would push it away, b-because I felt that it would distract me from what I was supposed to do, and I would mess up again.

"Look at how many people suffered because of _me,_ Sora. Some people even _died. _Kenric. Estelle. How many more people must suffer, because _I _messed up? I don't want to break down in _guilt._ That isn't worth it. I know how many people feel like I'm their last hope, how they so depend on me to save billions of people, but they get disappointed everytime I mess up everything. Sometimes I even feel like _I'm _the evil one, Sora. I know I'm _not _evil, but it feels so easy to turn evil because of my abnormality. At least, the elves back in the Lost Cities gave me looks, looks that told me they thought _I'm_ the evil one! And now, even one of my best friends is against me. All my friends had hated me before. First it was Dex, then Fitz, then Keefe, now it's Biana. Because I messed up. Well, Dex was just jealous and that was friendship problems, but the others were caused solely by _me._ It feels so bad to see the look that your friend gives you. And that's because I'm a mutant. An anomaly. Yeah, I can't deny it anymore. But it bothers me so much! What can I do, Sora?"

Sophie shook and swayed slightly at the word vomit she had just blurted out with so much emotion. She gasped for breath as Sora pulled her into a tight embrace.

"First of all," Sora said calmly, "your friends don't hate you, even if they are angry at you. Listen, Sophie! No matter how angry they are feeling towards you, they would never _hate _you. They probably feel as bad as you for treating you the way they had. If they're your _true friends_, they would never intend to hurt you in the first place. Believe me, I had experiences with my friends and even my brother." Her eyes lit up at the mention of Soreas. "By the way, Sophie, how's Soreas doing?"

"He misses you tons, but he's doing really fine. He even devised the plan to break into Exile himself!"

Sora laughed. "Oh, I'm so proud of him. He finally knows how to plan a devious scheme like me! I mustn't fall behind. Sophie, even siblings fight sometimes."

"Yeah, I know very well," Sophie grumbled, her mind filled with images of Amy Rose Foster squabbling with her. Suddenly, she felt very lonely.

"But we always make up, because we love each other. Ahem! Don't look at me like that. It's brother-sisterly love, okay? Your friends are like that too. They love you too-I said, _not that kind of love!_ Don't give me that look. They're there for you, even if not always. But trust me, they have their own hard times too. Fitz and Biana had to watch their father when his mind was broken and endure the pain and endless grief they feel. Dex is a son of a Talentless and always teased and bullied because of that. He gets easily jealous of people like the Vackers, because they are so perfect and problem-free in his eyes, unlike his family. Keefe's father doesn't accept Keefe the way he is, and Keefe's mother is part of the Neverseen and betrayed him and his father. Now do you see? They had their hard times too. They might not seem as hard as yours, but remember: don't compare! They might feel the same amount of stress as you do, but might not know it. You don't too. So don't judge your friends for the way they act towards you, okay?"

Sophie swallowed the huge lump in her throat, then croaked out, "Okay." She scratched off the tears that had mixed with the dirt on her cheeks and dried up. "Thanks, Sora. I...I'm really grateful for your wise advice."

Sora grinned. "Yeah, I'm the wisest elf in the world!"

Sophie snorted. "Like real," she retorted, feeling amused. Sophie and Sora stared at each other for a split second, then burst out laughing.

The ice in Sophie's heart shattered and melted completely in that warm moment.

"So...Did you see anything in the scene I transmitted you, Sora?"

Sora thought for a moment, and said slowly, "So...when you were light leaping out of Exile, you met face-to-face with _dark_ aquamarine eyes. Am I right?"

Sophie nodded, then confirmed, "Yeah. For a moment I thought it was you, but then I realised it wasn't-"

Sora snorted. "Puh-lease! I have _pale_ aquamarine eyes. On the other hand, that bratty rascal has _dark_ aquamarine eyes!"

Sophie grinned. "Chill. But I didn't really notice it before. Blame my photographic memory that's obviously not working as well as usual," she said jokingly, then her smile vanished. "It's Jin. It has to be Jin." Her tone grew serious.

"It sure is," Sora said bitterly and laughed shortly. The atmosphere in the room changed again. Sophie shuddered. She could tell that Sora was less than proud of her twin sister.

"Me and Soreas never told you about her before you discovered the truth, because I was ashamed of her. My own sister that looks almost exactly the same as me, but betrayed me and joined the enemy! I always knew she had a dark streak to her, but I didn't know she would go so far. She was once part of the Black Swan, _like me. _She believed in good once upon a time, _like me._ But that's the past, and the past is in the past. I don't really care anymore. I. Blame. Elodie. I hate her," She gritted her teeth bitterly as she spat out each syllable in the name. Sophie could practically see the hatred gleaming in her eyes, and she thanked her lucky stars that Sora didn't hate her instead. Though she easily might. Sophie thought she was easily hated.

"What did she do?" Sophie asked softly, not sure if she was hitting a sensitive spot.

To her relief, Sora didn't shout or anything. Instead she said venomously, "Elodie's a Mesmer. I should've known that she would spot some potential in her when she attacked our base for the first time to find out more information about you."

"Wait, about me?" Sophie was horrified and stunned.

Sora rolled her eyes. "Yes, you, Sophie Foster. Don't worry, I don't hate you for that. I should've known she would put a Mesmer Bond, linking her soul with Jin's. For your information, Jin was named Jin because of me. I'm Sora_jin,_ and hence the name. 'Jin' means 'gold' in Chinese, and the Japanese language was closely linked to Mandarin. I was once proud of Jin. Now?" Her eyes became distant for a split second. "Now she's the person I'm most ashamed of. Maybe it's not her fault. Maybe it was because of the special ability Elodie had that she used to manipulate Jin like she was her little puppet."

Where had Sophie heard those two words before? Oh yeah, they were once directed at her. That brought up bad memories and she pushed them away to the back of her mind.

Then a terrifying thought popped up in her mind. "Wait," she said slowly, every cell in her frozen. She felt like there was an ice cube sliding disturbingly around in her mind. "If Jin was linked to Elodie by a Mesmer Bond, and she turned bad..." Her eyes turned wild and her heart palpitated with the horrifying realisation. "Biana's linked to a Mesmer Bond too! Then could that mean..."

Worry came through for her friend, and her mind flash-backed to their last real conversation again. She hadn't really noticed it until now, but she could feel pieces of another horrible revelation forming together faster than she actually wanted. But the truth was the truth.

How did Biana know exactly how to irk Sophie so well until their breakup bothered her so much that it was nearly the last push to send Sophie into a flurry of emotions? Even though Biana was considered one of her best friends, she didn't know so much about Sophie. The only person who she trusted was Fitz, and she was sure Fitz knew most of her secrets. Keefe was a close second, but Biana...It was like she knew exactly what had been bothering her, and she knew exactly how to make Sophie feel the worst she had ever felt.

_"__You feel responsible."_

Those three words Biana had spoken to Sophie caught the most attention from Sophie. Before Sora, she hadn't confessed to anybody about her feelings. Nobody, in fact. She didn't tell one peep. No, not even Fitz, whom she trusted fully-even though Jolie's advice was to trust no one. So how did Biana know how she felt? Fitz was the only one who could read her mind, and she knew he wouldn't do that-

_Not the only one,_ Sophie realised, and the next realisation dawned on her instantly.

An image of Jin appeared in her mind. Jin was the Telepath that could overthrow her. The only one too.

Sophie didn't doubt her abilities, but she knew Jin could read her mind if she tried hard enough...

So she could know exactly how Sophie thought and felt! And then she would tell Elodie, and Elodie being the sneaky one, would order Biana to do something to make Sophie break down.

_What for?_ Sophie thought. _Oh, of course. To weaken me. _

She couldn't believe she had been so blind. The truth had been lying in front of her very eyes and she didn't even see it.

"Oh..." Sora said. "Biana's being controlled." She grabbed Sophie's arm, and when Sophie looked into her wild eyes, she felt the panic steadily rising in her. "This is bad, Sophie. We've got to escape from here to help Biana, as soon as possible!"

There was it again. The conviction in her voice. The way she held her head high, and the determination in her eyes.

Sophie wished that she could be like that too.

"I let Jin go to the evil side," Sora said firmly, her voice hitching slightly. "I'm _not_ letting another person be lost to us ever again. Ever."

* * *

"I've got it all figured out," Sora told Sophie, her eyes glinting. "You didn't light leap here. That won't make sense, because you were with the others. You teleported on your own."

"What?" Sophie said disbelievingly. "Nah, that can't be! I need to be at a certain height to teleport, and I didn't even jump or something to free fall into the void! And I didn't even feel like I was teleporting. I felt the light whisk me away..."

Her voice trailed off when she remembered something. A tiny little detail that she had missed out so conveniently. She had a tingling sensation in her mind, something she had never felt before when she was light leaping.

"I figured that the light must have helped you overcome your limitations. I mean like, light leaping and teleporting together as one? Anything that is weird but amazing could happen! And you saw Jin's eyes before you left Exile. I remember you telling me you really never noticed the difference before, and your desire to see me again-I'm really hoping there is one-helped and teleported you to where I am."

Sophie tapped her head thoughtfully. "That...That actually makes sense, you know."

"Yes, I know." Sora got up and started pacing around the bright prison. "We have to get out of here. Do you know how long I was in this weird hexagon-shaped thingy that was soundproof?"

"Soundproof?" Sophie repeated, confused, but she shook it off anyway. "What do the little hexagons do anyway, other than just look bright and yellow?" She stared at one of the walls which looked almost alive.

Sora's expression turned dark. "They do this," she said darkly. She stepped back, then ran forward and kicked the prison wall.

Suddenly, the wall grew brighter and zapped Sora's boot with yellowish light that looked suspiciously like forked lightning.

"Sora, no!" Sophie shouted, her heart going out for her friend, and she leaped forward to help her.

Sora didn't scream or anything as the force of the lightning pushed her back harshly. The smell of singed metal wafted in the air.

"How come you didn't b-burn up?" Sophie asked nervously. Forked lightning was exceptionally dangerous and would have burnt Sora until she was just a pile of ashes with a few embers!

"Look here, genius," Sora said, rolling her eyes. She lifted her foot to let Sophie see the tip of her boot. It was coated with a yellowish metal that was slightly burnt. "It's called ellinaum, and it's only found in the Lost Cities. It's something only the ogres have dug up in their horrible mines, and it's three-quarter resistant to lightning of any type. Fire too. Well, except for Everblaze, of course. I got this because my sister gave it to me as a birthday present when she was in the Neverseen, but not fully bad yet. Said to protect myself. From her, I will." Her eyes turned steely.

"Oh, I see..." Sophie murmured, understanding Sora's explanation. "So if kicking the wall doesn't help, what do you plan to do?"

"I quote form myself, 'A good schemer never gives up'," Sora said proudly, "and that is me. Not sure if my brother's on that level yet. But I am. So, I figured that the only way we get out of here is by teleporting. And we have you. Perfection. Light leaping won't work, because the light here is abnormal."

"Me to the rescue again," Sophie grumbled.

Sora grinned. "You should feel honoured. You're the Moonlark, you're really lucky that you're blessed with such unique abilities."

"More like cursed," Sophie muttered.

"Oh, shut up. Sophie, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life! Yes, you have the power to destroy, but more importantly, you have the power to save. You'll get us out of this tight spot, I just know it."

Looking at the promise and conviction in Sora's eyes, Sophie fully believed them for the first time in forever.

"Okay," Sophie said with resolve. She stood up slowly and looked around their small confinement. This little _thing_ couldn't bring her down. She had four exceptional abilities that were growing stronger by each day and an impenetrable mind, trained by the most experienced Black Swan Mentors. If someone could break out of this electrical prison and rescue Sora and probably billions of people whose lives were at stake, it was Sophie Foster, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

* * *

**Question: What do you think will happen to Biana?  
**

**(P.S. If you don't know what I mean and you're like: "What the heck is Xylia talking about?" You're not reading the chapter carefully :P)**


	54. Chapter 56

**Hey guys! This is another update from yours truly, and I hope you enjoy it! Wonder why I never call you peeps? Because I think peeps is weird and overrated. Hey guys sounds much better, don't you think so? **

**For this chapter, I have a word count of 4,870 words. My, my, longest chapter yet! :] And apparently I started a trend or something with this word count thingy. ForeverFreeFall, pen. edge, copicrazeunwoltxnaa and twinkletoestbh did it o.O I was both surprised and amused but I was proud of myself for starting a new trend (even if twinkletoestbh already surpassed my 'high score' :) Haha, I don't care, it's just to mark how much I've come from the 1st chapter. (Original 1st chapter was, like, 400 words long only o.O) But it's not a lot about the number of words, it's about how well you write! **

**So, umm...Did I improve? TELL MOI! :)))**

**Last time, I posted the prologue of my new story, Payback's A Nightmare. I know, weird name, but WHO CARES? I don't care. It fits perfectly and I love it. You gotta love your own story! Tell me what do you think of the first chapter in the story alright? :)**

**This chapter's question has to do with something related to Linh Song, the new character that is coming out in Neverseen, which is coming out in FOUR DAYS' TIME! ! ! EEK I can't wait to read it and then think...**

**What the heck, how does Shannon Messenger write it so well, she's, like, ten times better than me! ! ! :(((**

**Chapter 53**

**pen. edge: Thanks for finding this chapter amazing, I'm utterly touched! And I guess Sophie could, but what help could Fitz do? If you read the last chapter, Sora mentioned "Can't believe you actually got through security" That means the security there was really tight and not even the Black Swan could break in but Sophie did, because she appeared _inside_ of the prison. :) Hope that made sense! And I'm not saying anything about Biana...hehe...  
**

**daringwolf2000: Thank you so much and I love you! Thanks for reviewing too! :)))**

**twinkletoestbh: I'm so glad you found this chapter awesome. I wasn't sure about the long chapter, but the nice reviews made me change my mind and make my day. Ok. So it is pretty awesome that you predicted everything ALMOST correctly :] And yes, I do love Frozen, but my obsession is long gone, now it's High School Musical and Pokemon. And thank you! :)**

**ForeverFreeFall: It's good to laugh! As they say "laughter is the best medicine" :P Haha! Now I'm laughing... o.O**

**Mrs Keefe Sencen: Omg, a new reviewer! Thank you so much for finding my story awesome! And you would still read this after Neverseen comes out? Omg again you are so sweet! Thanks a million!**

**ferntailswarriors: For the cliffie thing, it's okay. :) And yeah, that was the first time you told me about that, so it's not that annoying. I was just confused why some people don't like cliffies. I mean, cliffies are wonderful, yanno! And for next chapter (or maybe next, next chapter, which means either this chapter 56 or chapter 57) I have something truly evil planned for you guys but I have no idea if you'll like it. Some of you won't, but I'm okay. Good luck, and happy Halloween! Tomorrow is Halloween but I have nothing to do on Halloween...**

**A person: Okay, maybe I write too long chapters, but I love writing long chapters! And yes your theory is correct this time this is the longest one yet. Muahahahaha! :)) Thanks!**

**Chapter 54**

**daringwolf2000: Alright then! I shall do it! Thanks!  
**

**A person: Yes, there is a family tree you should know about. Evelina is daughter of S&amp;K, Brennus is the son of F&amp;a girl which is my own character. Sorry if that confused you.**

**pen. edge: Yeah, I saw your new story, I liked it. :) Well, I'm not loving it yet, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. Yeah Sophitz was a thing but now it's Keefster. Thanks!**

**ferntailwarriors: Sorry! Here's your update! And I'm so sorry you're exhausted, I feel that sometimes too.**

**ForeverFreeFall: Okay thanks, hope you like the story! :)**

**Fangirl1: Wow it's amazing you read all the way until here! Ana nah, it won't be awkward if you just reviewed. You'll just see my reply in the latest chapter, no worries. :) Yes, in my new story, at first Sofitz was a thing, but then it became Keefster. Fitz married someone I have yet to reveal. But you won't know her yet, she's my own character. ;) Glad you love my stories!**

**Guest: Thanks a lot!**

After that meaningful talk with Sophie's long-lost friend, Sora, Sophie, with the help of Sora, had melted her frozen heart successfully and was now ready to break the both of them out of the Neverseen's electrical prison. But many complications arise inconveniently and a long-time-no-see enemy appears and Sophie must fight against her enemy, triumph and to rescue Sora and herself back to the Black Swan base, where her friends are waiting for her impatiently to come back before the last war starts for real.

* * *

"Sora, let's get out of here fast," Sophie told Sora firmly, her heart filled with resolve and conviction. She felt a little bit like how Sora had acted just now when she was comforting Sophie, and that made Sophie feel good. At least she was trying to be strong and not mess up too.

Sophie knew she was never going to be like Sora - anyway, Sophie had to be who she truly was, not who Sora was-but she told herself it was very sufficient if Sophie herself-such a weak character once-learned many of the good values Sora possessed. Gosh, Sora could be her top role model too!

"I'm so glad I'm finally coming out of this stupid prison, along with you to my rescue," Sora smiled gratefully at Sophie, who returned the friendly gesture back uncertainly. Worrying thoughts were disabling her to function properly, and Sophie was scared she would muddle the whole thing up again like she always did.

"I still don't know how I did it back then, though. How in the world did I teleport without jumping off somewhere high from the ground? And how the hell can I do it again? It seems very impossible," Sophie thought worriedly. What if she couldn't figure it out and she failed and messed up and then they might stay here forever more? And what if-

She was interrupted abruptly by Sora.

"Oh, don't worry, Sophie. _We'll_ figure that out. Together. And I promise you we're going to get out of this dreadful place eventually," Sora promised loyally, lifting her eyes to look at Sophie with both of her cheeks flushed pink.

Sophie's eyes flew wide open in surprise. How in the world did Sora know what she was thinking? Was she a Telepath? Then she laughed at herself as she realised what silly thing she had done. "Wait, did I say what I was thinking out loud?" She asked Sora, knowing the answer already even before Sora laughed, amused too and replied her, making Sophie feel very foolish.

Sora confirmed her theory by inclining her head slightly, a smug grin plastered on her dry, cracked lips. "Yeah, you did. You might want to work on that bad habit. It might go against you someday. So, Sophie, think back to the part where you were light leaped-" Suddenly, a series of coughs and hacks cut off her sentence and Sora stopped to calm and steady herself down before speaking again.

She cleared her throat, and Sophie noticed when she did that, her voice was still a little cracked.

"Sorry," Sora said in a rather hoarse voice. "So, can you recall back to the time in Exile?"

Sophie ignored her out of worry for her friend, and asked Sora concernedly, "Are you quite alright, Sora? You keep coughing."

"I'm fine," Sora said insistently, but her voice was still hoarse.

Sophie shook her head vigorously to further emphasize her point. She knew Sora was just lying to keep her unworried-but it wouldn't work on Sophie even in the slightest. She reached for a loose eyelash, then stopped herself just in time. She blew out a breath sharply.

"No, you're not alright at all, Sora. You screamed a lot of times when you were inside the cage alone, right?" She asked Sora quietly, going all serious.

Sora looked away quickly and directed her long gaze to her human-style boots for a while.

Sophie noticed her boots, and a curious question popped up in her mind, making her ponder if it would be enough to break the ice between them. She went ahead to ask her question.

"Why are you wearing human boots, Sora? I mean, you're an elf, so you should be wearing elvin-style boots." She felt very curious, and partly because she wanted to hear Sora talk about _herself_ for a change.

Sora snapped her head up. "What did you say again?" she mumbled to Sophie quietly, not looking at Sophie in the eye.

Sophie couldn't hear her whisper, and cocked her head sideways more towards Sora. "Umm, what are you saying? I can't hear you," she told Sora, not knowing why Sora was being like that. Why was she so soft just now? It wasn't like her.

Sora raised her voice sharply. "I said, what did you say again?" She shouted so loudly that the hexagon-shaped walls bounced with the discreet vibration. Sophie drew back. _Woah, that was some mood swing Sora had,_ she thought to herself in her mind.

"Sorry, Sora, but I was asking you a question. I asked you why you were wearing human boots. I thought elves would follow the elvin style fashion and not the human fashion," Sophie said nervously, not sure if Sora would snap back at her question again. She seemed moody and she kept stamping her foot on the ground with the tip of her boot which was coated with ellinaum, the kind of metal that was three-quarter resistant to fire and lightning. The pair of boots were a present from her twin sister, Jin, to Sora, and Sophie could tell and knew that Sora was hugely bothered by them. Maybe she should just stop wearing them at all. And now that she thought of it, her question seemed really absurd and the two of them dove into awkward silence for a few seconds.

After what seemed like an eternity, but actually was only around five seconds, Sora spoke up and answered Sophie's question.

"Elves in the Lost Cities talk elvin fashion, and wear elvin fashion. Humans in the Forbidden Cities talk human fashion, and wear human fashion. So why can't elves in the Forbidden Cities wear human boots?" Sora contradicted gloomily. Sophie frowned, disappointed.

"Dex wears elvin boots," Sophie told Sora, shrugging her shoulders.

Sora didn't say anything for a short while, her eyes full with strong emotion at the mention of Dex.

Then she spoke up quietly, and told Sophie nonchalantly, "Well, I'm not Dex. And I never lived in the Lost Cities before."

Sophie widened her eyes in shock. "Not even once you have visited the Lost Cities?"

Sora snorted and rolled her eyes. At the mention of Dex, she seemed to have cheered up a little and regained some of her original self. "Of course that's not what I mean, silly. I was born in one of the Black Swan labs on the other side of the world-ahem, don't look me like that, I'm not a project, okay?-because my parents, Calsa and Krabbe were part of the Black Swan, too, like my grandmother, Silla Heks.

"I guess my mum's the one I really knew. Both my parents d-died at the same time, because there was a mysterious explosion at the lab-"

Sophie cut her off and she gripped her right arm tightly until it hurt. She let go and felt the blood flow in again, then said shockingly, "Estelle didn't tell me that."

Sora raised her eyebrows. "Someone's been telling my past to you, huh? Anyway, I don't remember much, only the most important details. I don't know how, but I survived the explosion miraculously, though my parents weren't so lucky, unfortunately for them. I only remembered my brother Soreas dragging me away hurriedly from the ruins as I saw the remains of my parents and screamed in horror. Back then, I didn't even know who they were. But Soreas told me all about them later when we were rescued by Silla Heks. Then I was further disgusted. To think I never even saw their real faces-they had been destroyed in the explosion-which was most probably caused by the stupid Neverseen. I hate them to death. Every picture that showed even an inch of any of my parents' faces were completely razed and destroyed until they were merely ashes floating in the air." She clenched her fists angrily, and Sophie could see her hands shaking in fury. "I had no idea why the Black Swan did that. I hated them for that. But since they offered me safety, protection, and a place to stay forever more, I agreed to cooperate with them. Anyway, Silla was very friendly, and she was a woman who was also staying there and she claimed to be my grandmother and promised me I wouldn't regret it if I said 'yes'. You'd think how I would remember so much when I was just like, a newborn baby. Well, these are core memories, and memory loss just can't hit on them. I don't have an eidetic memory like you, Sophie. I can't remember all of the details. But you have to keep in mind I'm an elf, and memories that are accompanied with strong memories usually last forever and always. They never ever, _ever _disappear." Sora looked at her hands wistfully, which were slashed with cuts and burns. Sophie cringed and looked away from Sora.

"Don't do that. It unnerves me and makes me feel uncomfortable. Okay, back to the point. One night, i secretly crept to Silla's lab and stole one strand of hair from her silver hairbrush which was resting on the sleek black table she used to conduct weird experiments. Then, I crept to Estelle and asked her to do a DNA test, pulling out another strand of hair from me this time. The results came out and Estelle datalogged it into a collection of scrolls she keeps in her room. Dunno if it's still there, but she likes to look at it occasionally. Silla Heks was indeed my grandmother, and she kept her promise fully. I didn't regret staying at the Black Swan base. In fact, if I didn't oblige to stay there, I would probably be dead right now, without even a Wanderling tree to signify my death. Look at Estelle. There was nothing for her. Nothing. Not even people paying their respects to her. This is how the Black Swan works, Sophie. A loss is a loss. They don't make a big deal out of it."

At the mention of Estelle's unfortunate death, Sophie's eyes filled with tears.

"Hey, hey, none of that crying, please. I'm a little tired of it already, I thought you decided to move on now. So keep your own promise to yourself, alright?

"But I _did_ wonder how much different life would be if I had said 'no'. I often spent nights lying on my bed in my dormitory, imagining life in the Lost Cities-if I did survive, that is. Soreas told me he really did think I was a really clever and capable baby when I was still young. I prided myself because of that praise from my own brother, I resolved to work hard in my training which began when I was five. And Estelle was my mentor in self-defense back then. I was a really naughty and mischievous student back then, I bet she was glad to see the back of me." Sora's voice turned wistful, her eyes turning glassy as Sophie's did the same.

"I worked hard. I really worked hard. I wanted to show those people who looked down on me that I could be as good as them, and maybe even better. I did that and my hard work finally paid off after one year. I triggered my first ability as a Terrakinetic. Apparently, I was the third one in the whole world to manifest an ability like that. Everyone was awed, and people started to respect me more. Then driven by that fact, two years later, I triggered my second ability. A Polyglot. That made sense, because Polyglots often have more than one ability. Soreas manifested two abilities too and he was a Guster. He was _so _envious of my rare ability! He and I frequently engage in battles that restricted us to use only our talent that controlled one of the four elements." Sora's face looked dreamy and she didn't seem to be aware of Sophie staring at her disbelievingly with great awe.

Sophie, in truth, was stunned. Sora really had a hard life experience too, just like her! Maybe Sophie wasn't the only one suffering. Maybe there were other people who felt the same way as her.

Maybe.

It was all 'maybe' or 'probably'. Maybe there were people who sympathized with Sophie. Maybe not too. It was all too undefined and undetermined.

_That's the flow of life, and that's how the world functions every time, _Sophie thought both cynically and bitterly. Sometimes she felt like she was too much of a cynical person-she _did _think the world was evil and often went against her. But the world really _was_ evil. Especially when it came to her.

Sora shook her head and pressed a hand to her forehead sadly. "I miss everyone," she said moodily, staring at blank space.

Sophie watched her through her understanding brown eyes. She missed Grady and Edaline a whole lot, Alden and Della too, and not excluding all the people who had been so kind to her before...the list was way too long. But the world wasn't completely evil, because those people _did_ love her. And as Sora said, her friends really did too. (Sophie couldn't help but cringe at that.) She wasn't alone. There were people who would join in with her in the battle. She really didn't want to rope them in this tough fight with her, but that was the way of life. People had to be lost or hurt sometimes.

"Well," Sora said tiredly, "what about getting back to the main point, Sophie? Can you recall the part where you were light leaping out of Exile?"

Sophie, most happy to oblige, closed her eyes, concentrating hard, and a flurry of images instantly appeared in her mind, swirling wildly until Sophie had to calm them down by sorting them out one by one.

After what seemed like an eternity of replaying the scene and observing what she had seen, heard and felt over and over again, Sophie opened her eyes wearily and said exhaustively to Sora, "I'm done, Sora. I think I have something."

Sora nodded excitedly, her pretty pale aquamarine eyes shining of wonder and hope until they were almost sparkling. Sophie could sense her happiness and felt obliged to not let her down.

There was hoping she didn't mess the rescue mission up again...

"How many times must I say, do not speak your thoughts out loud?! And how many times did I tell you to think positive! Urgh!" Sora chided Sophie in exasperation, clicking her tongue in disapproval. Sophie grinned sheepishly and a hysterical giggle escaped from her mouth.

"Sorry, Sora," she said apologetically. Sora waved her sentence away with a delicate hand, then asked Sophie what she had observed from the scene that she asked her to recall.

"Well, there was sort of a tingling sensation in my mind, which I had never felt before during light leaping, but definitely when I was teleporting. That would prove I really did teleport and your theory was indeed correct," Sophie stated, understanding leaking into her voice. Sora nodded approvingly, her lips curved upwards slightly.

"See, what did I tell you? I'm smart," Sora nagged at Sophie half-jokingly, smiling impishly. Sophie swatted away her words.

She laughed at her self-praise. "Well, yes, you are smart indeed and there's no denying it," she told Sora proudly, returning her impish smile.

"And there's no need to mention other things now. You know you saw Jin's eyes, and that made you think of me. Then there comes the desire to see me again"-Sophie blushed at that-"and so you teleported instead of light leaping, and arrived here with me. Honestly, I'm glad to see you. I'm getting tired of this place. And what did I tell you about thinking negative thoughts? Don't! You deserve better, Sophie. Think positive! Your future is bright!" Sora said brightly, throwing her arms around to emphasize the point she was trying to get to Sophie. Sophie merely rolled her eyes at Sora's funny gestures.

"More like, my future is the darkest thing ever in the world," Sophie retorted dryly, not feeling any spark of hope living inside her. Okay, maybe that was exaggerating too much. She did have hope for breaking Sora out of prison and becoming who she truly was, but definitely did not have much hope for her future.

Sora reached out and clasped her hands together with Sophie's, intertwining their fingers together tightly. Sophie had no choice but to stare into Sora's pale aquamarine eyes that seemed almost green. A long, thin strand of auburn hair fell over her forehead, and Sora self-consciously brushed it back, pulling it over her right ear.

"Sophie, you shouldn't be worrying about yourself right now," she lisped quietly, her eyes becoming steely. "You can do it, I know of it. Now, we should be concerned about more important things." Her hands fell away from Sophie's and her eyes travelled to the bottom of the electric prison. Her feet were on the ground, but there was no electricity. The wall they were standing on was dull and grey.

Sora sneaked a smug glance at Sophie, who scowled at her. "Well, even if my awesome pep-talk didn't give you the least of hope, _this_ should, right? Watch and learn, Sophie."

Sophie watched curiously as Sora closed her eyes peacefully, not doing anything. She was about to get annoyed and call Sora up when Sora suddenly opened her almond-shaped eyes and thrust her hands in the direction of the ground, splaying her hands open as a yellowish-green glow emitted from her palms scarily.

Sophie watched in fascination and awe but then yelped loudly in terror when the ground cracked open, leaving wide, terrifying fissures that spread from one side to another side. The gaping holes were even big enough to fit a human body inside.

Sora grinned widely at Sophie, who had her mouth open wide, gaping. "Even if I do this, we still need your awesome talents. I'm just doing this because I feel bad that I've not been using my abilities much to help us," she explained modestly to Sophie.

Sophie stared at the cracked ground in fear and awe. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot you were a Terrakinetic. But you said to me to watch and learn. How am I supposed to learn this when I'm not even a Terrakinetic in the first place?" she asked Sora dryly, her voice dripping of sarcasm. She remembered what Sora had said to her before she did the whole creepy Terrakinetic thingy.

Sora shrugged. "It just sounded cool, so I decided to say it."

Sophie rolled her eyes at this. Sora was...

_Someone who can control the power of earth, _she told herself inside her mind, feeling a shiver go down her spine, then she immediately scolded herself mentally for doing that.

Sora's talent seemed so terrifying and powerful that Sophie thought it was actually on par with one of her own abilities that she possessed - Inflicting.

It made fun, cheery, and confident Sora seem scary, cold, and icy.

Like, what more terrifying than being able to control the forces of nature?

That was one of the many reasons she hated Pyrokinetics.

But Sophie vowed to herself she would never ever hate Sora Heks - even though she was both a Heks (Sophie hated Stina with a burning passion) and a Terrakinetic. Sophie did the same with Soreas, who was a Guster.

Sora nodded her head towards the large crack in the ground. "Well, what are you waiting for? Jump in."

Sophie stared at the fissure and imagined herself going inside the muddy, dirty dirt, then shuddered in disgust, rubbing her upper arms which were under her emerald-green cape. "Are you kidding me, Sora? You...You really expect me to _go inside the earth? _Have you any idea what exactly you are telling me to do?_" _She freaked out and complains flew out of her mouth as easily as exhaling air.

Sora scowled at Sophie, clearly offended. "There's nothing scary or disgusting in the earth," she said loftily. "Please don't insult my element. It's just...earth! What on earth is wrong with earth?" She looked pretty confused and Sophie smiled a little. It was evident that Sora loved her ability wholly and was very proud of it, unlike Sophie, who was, like, absolutely terrified of anything abnormal her almost normal abilities were capable of doing.

Sophie stared hard and long at the ground again, her mind spinning. Did she really have to do this stupid thing?

"Umm...I guess...Alright then..." she said reluctantly, her voice trailing off. She picked out a loose eyelash from her left eyelid, then cursed herself for doing that. It was really unnerving,

Apparently, Sora really was serious about this whole 'climbing into mud' thing and when she saw Sophie's reluctance, she muttered, "Pampered girl" and fixed her eyes on Sophie, who cringed. Sora could look very fierce if she wanted to.

"Get. In," Sora ordered firmly, a tone of absolute finality in her voice which made Sophie want to squirm. Sophie knew there was no arguing with Sora when she used that voice.

She sighed. "You sound so much like a mother," she told Sora crossly, who rolled her eyes at her comment. Sophie scowled back at Sora and slipped one leg gingerly into the hole in the prison ground. Her flesh met with squishy, wet mud which made Sophie yelp and draw back her leg quickly, which was covered with brown slime.

"Sorajin Heks! How could you!" She complained childishly, clicking her tongue cheekily at Sora. Sora rolled her eyes at her full name and sighed loudly, grabbing Sophie's hand tightly. Sophie neared the distance between the two of them, suddenly feeling afraid. Sora gave her a strange look that spelled out disapproval but didn't do anything as she warned Sophie, "Get ready."

Suddenly, the earth they were standing on started churning and steeping downwards, like quicksand swallowing them up. Sophie couldn't feel the mud on her body this time and was actually quite enjoying the ride when the churning suddenly stopped and they were halfway into the ground. The direction where the earth was moving changed and it pushed upwards, forcing Sora and Sophie up until their feet reached solid ground and the earth solidified again.

"Sora? What's happening?" Sophie tugged at Sora's arm, feeling panicked as Sora didn't move.

All of a sudden, something bright and yellow flashed towards Sophie, obviously trying to target her. It burned easily through the walls and the electric-yellow walls collapsed and vanished into thin air.

Sophie gasped in fright as she stood there, her feet uselessly rooted to the ground as her fear-filled eyes could only watch the burst of flame get closer and closer.

She thought she was going to get hit, but then a flash of auburn hair zapped and appeared in front of Sophie. Sora pulled Sophie behind her back, outstretching her hands to protect Sophie.

Sophie's eyes widened in fear for her friend. _No...Sora! Get away from here right now! _She transmitted frantically to Sora but either Sora chose to ignore it or just didn't hear her transmission, because she didn't budge a step.

Then, Sophie's panic turned into a fusion of horror and fear as Sora's delicate body suddenly went limp and fell to the ground, looking as lifeless as a rag doll. The smell of burning flesh filled the air like a plague.

_"__Sora, no!"_ Sophie cried out loudly as she ran over to tend to her pale-looking friend, ignoring the horrible smell wafting in the air. She shook Sora's shoulder vigorously but nothing happened. Could she be...?

_No, no. No, it can't be._

Fire had killed so many people.

In a desperate attempt, Sophie thrust her finger below Sora's nostrils quickly, her heart hammering in her ears and almost fainted in relief when she felt frail air being exhaled slowly out of Sora's nostrils. She seemed so weak, with all the horrifying cuts on her body...How did she even survive the raging water in Root Abyss? Sophie really had to give it to her. And it seemed the Neverseen had tortured her greatly too.

Fury boiled and bubbled in Sophie's body and anger rushed through her veins quickly, making her heart rate pick up along with her breathing. She hated the Neverseen. She really, really, really hated them. How could they kill so many people and not feel the slightest of sorry for it?

At least Sora was still alive. Sophie felt calm settle down in her body again and her breathing slowed down considerably, but her fury was still there. Who would have done such a horrible thing? She tried to lug Sora up, but Sora was too heavy and she couldn't get her down the crack in the ground for them both to escape.

Sophie's fingers grazed Sora's cold but flushed cheek, a tear running down her cheek and landing on her forehead.

_Be safe._

Those were the exact two words she transmitted to Sora right before she heard someone say behind her:

"Are you done with your sappy moment yet?" It was a disdainful, bored voice. A disdainful, bored, but _familiar_ voice. She knew who it was all too well.

Sophie wasn't too glad to see that person now. Once upon a time, they were friends, but now, for some reason, they were deadly enemies and Sophie knew that person would be all too glad to kill her.

* * *

Sophie set Sora down carefully on the ground and whirled around to meet Marella Redek face-to-face. Sophie could practically feel the fiery heat blazing wildly between the two of them-and no, not even half of it was from the Pyrokinetic that stood in front of her.

It was more of the hatred that burned and stung Sophie painfully, like a bad memory or nightmare she wasn't wanting to remember.

Sophie felt a bitter smile grace her lips. "I thought you were done with this whole 'joining the Neverseen' thing. Apparently not, and I was wrong." In the corner of her eye, she saw Sora's arm twitch.

Marella returned Sophie a dark laugh, but before she could even open her mouth to speak to Sophie, Sophie cut her off by saying quietly, "Why did you start to hate me, Marella? We were so good friends once upon a time. Is it because you were jealous of Biana being my friend? Or is it because you felt left out because me and Fitz didn't let you and Jensi join in the 'fun', so you decided to have 'fun' yourself, huh?"

Her voice dripped of bitterness and sarcasm. Marella didn't know _anything._ She didn't know even half of the terrible things that lurked in this so called 'innocent' world. Elodie and the Neverseen were just controlling her, manipulating her thoughts to let Marella think Sophie and company with the Black Swan were the bad ones and the Neverseen was merely fighting for 'justice and equality in our damned world'.

Something raw and vulnerable flashed in Marella's eyes for a second, but then it was quickly replaced with a blank empty look that was emotionless. "Precisely," she said, her eyes glinting dangerously.

Sophie frowned. Something about Marella seemed off. That blank, empty look in her eyes, and that lilting, mesmerizing tone in her voice...Biana had it too.

She stared at Marella shockingly, the horrifying realisation dawning right before her very eyes. By any chance - no, Sophie knew that it was true: Marella was definitely one of Elodie's newest victims and she was totally unconscious of the horrible things she was doing because Elodie mesmerized her to do so.

If Marella did it...Biana could have done it too.

Sophie just hoped she herself wasn't next on Elodie's victim list.

**Question: So, what are your thoughts about Linh? I'll have more to say when her brother's character art comes out. Four more days!**


	55. Chapter 57

**Word count: 4,364 words.**

_I thought she felt it too. The friendship between me and her._

_Apparently not, then._

Marella shook her head inwardly as she stared at Sophie, her feelings mixed up wildly and jumbled up messily. Sophie's words still rang through her head, echoing loudly over and over again like a broken record.

_"Why did you hate me, Marella? Because you were jealous of Biana being my friend? Or you felt left out because me and Fitz didn't let you and Jensi join in the 'fun', so you decided to have 'fun' yourself, huh?"_

By her words, Marella knew she still didn't understand her well enough. Was this really her friend almost one year ago? She had been so kind to take up Sophie as her friend when she had just started Level Two. On her very first day of school, Sophie was being shamed and called a 'freak' by everybody else because Sophie had revealed she had been living with the humans—dirty, filthy, cheating humans—before she came to the Lost Cities. And furthermore, she had brown eyes, not even the slightest bit close to the colour of blue that each and every elf's eyes in the Lost Cities were.

And Marella was the only one kind enough to be the first person to really make friends with Sophie. She hated girls, but Sophie had seemed so...weak. So small and vulnerable. And so Marella decided to forge a friendship with Sophie Foster, the weird, freaky girl who nobody liked except for a few exceptions.

And this was how she paid Marella back? By speaking scornful words to her? A misty fog covered Marella's eyes once more as the hurt was cleansed away from her body and steeliness replaced it abruptly.

She didn't know what exactly she was doing, but she felt a strange sensation in her mind as she said firmly, "Precisely." It seemed to convince Sophie, but it didn't convince Marella herself at all.

It was like she was doing something she didn't know she was doing.

A tingling feeling in her mind erupted at the back of her head, but the fog quickly covered the clear part of her mind again, making Marella feel confused and dazed. But a little voice in her mind told her that the most important thing to do right now was to weaken Sophie, kill the Black Swan girl, and haul them over to Elodie.

Marella watched Sophie's eyes widen and her head lift up slightly. No doubt she had just realised something. What had she found out?

"You're coming with me, and the Black Swan girl as well," Marella said, walking closer to Sophie and glaring right into her face.

Suddenly, mental words filled her mind like a plague. It was Sophie's voice. It entered like a soft breeze, but attacked her mind like a series of razor-sharp darts.

_If you want Sora, you'll have to get past me first._

Marella looked into Sophie's brown eyes, and saw her own blue eyes reflected in it. They were blazing with neon-yellow fire. Since when had she become like...that? A monster with eyes of flames?

But something stopped her from giving it a second thought.

She smirked at Sophie, and tossed her unkempt blonde hair over her shoulder. Unlike her boring days in Foxfire, she had let down her hair and undid the little braids to show everyone that nobody could stop her.

She was free.

"Bring it on, Sophie Foster," she pronounced every syllable fully, shooting each one at Sophie's scarred face.

Sophie closed her eyes, and Marella knew she had to get ready for each other's attacks too.

She snapped her fingers, and a blazing orange fire leaped out of her palms. She felt like this was going to be an easy match. That Black Swan girl was teetering on the edge of death, and anyway, what could a scrawny little Telepath like Sophie do when faced with a Pyrokinetic all by herself?

She sent the wild flames leaping towards Sora, remembering the Neverseen's clear and direct orders to kill the Black Swan girl first.

They set fire to the ground and Marella was about to throw another fireball when Sophie snapped her eyes open. She could see her hands quavering slightly, but her voice was firm and steady when she cut Marella off, "Not so fast."

She held out two hands right in front of the fireball and created a strong mental shield, blocking her and Sora from the nasty fireball.

"I have no idea why the Neverseen asked you to kill Sora," said Sophie to Marella, "but I'm not going to let you get away from it. Ever. Sora was the one who helped me get out of the storm that has been raging inside of me for so long."

Marella narrowed her eyes. "I. Don't. Give. A. World. Let me tell you, you're all talk. Show me some action!" She was getting slightly impatient by now.

Sophie shrugged. "If it's action you want, then watch out for this," she said, pushing out her hands again. The fireball rebounded from her mental shield and exploded into a million little flames that were flickering dangerously but at the same time blazing wildly.

Marella laughed wickedly and flicked her right index finger into the air smoothly. The flames stopped charging at Marella abruptly and shot for the sky, making Sophie gasp and clutch her brain in agony.

"Your telekinesis might be the most powerful one in the world," admitted Marella, "but it still can't beat my control over fire."

"Oh yeah?" Sophie spat at Marella, who flinched at her rude action. "I bet your control over fire is so lousy that you'll burn up the whole world."

Marella smiled, and there was a glint in her eye. "Maybe I'll do that during the elvin-human war. Who knows? But that's not the main point right now. You"—she pointed at Sophie, her finger trying hard not to shake—"and me have a match to settle right now. And if you want to make it a fire versus fire battle, so be it. You'll know who emerges as the victor then."

Sophie smiled at Marella confidently. Marella blanched in surprise. Since when did Sophie become so confident? She could still remember her as a nervous, unsure new girl, picking at her eyelashes...

But that was the past, and the past was in the past. Now, these two people were no longer friends. Now, they were sworn enemies and they were now having a one-on-one match with each other.

This was it. The ultimate fight.

It was time to fight fire with fire.

* * *

Sophie's hands curled into fists and they shook uncontrollably as they sent a vibration through her weary body. There was no denying it-she was tired.

That was putting things lightly.

She was _exhausted._

Sophie could feel it inside her. She could feel every single cell wearing out slowly one by one. Who knew when was the last time she ever got some sleep? Probably that fateful night-the night before everyone set off to break into Exile to heal Prentice.

The night before everything really went wrong.

Sophie's eyelids fluttered and she knew it was not long before she would cave in and give up the rest of her. And what would happen to Sora? Would Marella take no mercy and burn her into mere embers and ashes, adding another point to the Neverseen's scoreboard.

No. Sophie was tired, but she needed to keep fighting on. Something flowed into her body-determination? Or could it possibly be something that was just in between resolve and perseverance?-thereby strengthening her.

She knew Marella wouldn't be taking it easy on her. She had calmly stated by herself, it was a fight between fire and fire.

Marella had assumed Sophie was going to use only her telekinesis to win this battle. Oh boy, how wrong she was.

_Moonlarks may seem delicate and elegant, but like everything else, they have hidden fangs inside of them, _Master Leto had said to her once when he and Sophie were carrying out Telepathy training sessions. _I didn't arm you with a dozen hidden abilities for nothing when I created you. If the time ever comes, unleash those hidden fangs and show your enemies what you're made of._

Sophie was _very_ sure she wasn't a sparkly vampire in Twilight or something like that. But Master Leto was her creator, and even if Sophie didn't trust him, she knew he would never lie about this kind of things.

Her mind flashed back to the part where she had been discussing with Sora about her 'teleporting without limits' situation. She had really accomplished that challenging feat without needing to free fall from a high distance.

Could that be one of the 'hidden fangs' Master Leto had been talking about?

While she was thinking intently about that, Marella made her first move. She lunged towards Sophie in a flash, and tackled her ruthlessly to the cold hard ground, holding her by the throat. Sophie coughed and hacked, gasping for air as Marella held her down.

Marella sighed. "Is the moonlark really that easily beaten?" Sophie's eyes flew wide open in surprise, but then understood. Of course the Neverseen would have told Marella all about her dark secrets that she wouldn't have minded keeping to herself.

"G-Get o-out," Sophie croaked, feeling numbness spreading around her whole body. She attempted to writhe out of Marella's tight grip, but to no avail. Marella had been training to fight not with just fire, it seemed.

Well, Estelle did the same with her too. And she was not going to turn Estelle's trainings with her into dust.

She curled her right hand into a fist, using her left hand to clasp the Sucker Punch cuff onto her wrist securely. Ten more seconds and she won't be able to breathe. Panic filled her heart as she directed a punch into Marella's face.

Air whooshed out of the cuff, enhancing the sheer power of her punch and pushing Marella away efficiently, making her gasp in pain and back away a few steps, releasing her grip on Sophie's throat. Sophie rubbed her sore throat and cracked her knuckles. Obviously this battle needed Sophie to be fully attentive and concentrative. She narrowed her eyes into slits as she closed her eyes and reached her mind out to Marella's, sensing where she was. Sophie was hoping she could catch her off guard and attack her when she was closest to Sophie so that there was almost no chance of dodging.

She could feel Marella's thoughts get louder and louder as she felt her near the distance between them.

_Now!_ Sophie shouted in her mind and opened her eyes abruptly, her fist connecting with Marella's jaw. Marella gaped and a cracking sound reached Sophie's ears as she clutched her jaw tenderly, glaring at Sophie.

Marella snapped her fingers tentatively, pointing at Sophie, then Sora.

A cage of red, blazing flames leaped out from the ground suddenly, surrounding Sophie quickly, trapping any road of escape. The same was did to Sora. Marella tilted her head to the right in amusement as she watched Sophie survey her unfamiliar surroundings in fear and panic. Sora was unconscious and didn't feel anything as the flames flickered closer to her, burning the ground around her.

"You might be wondering why that bratty girl took such critical damage when she was hit by fire," Marella told Sophie, regarding her casually. "The reason is because she is a Terrakinetic, an elf who could control the element of earth. And you may not know it, but being able to control an element makes you almost _like _it. Earth is naturally at a clear disadvantage against fire, so she took a much larger hit when she was engulfed by the flame than you would have." Marella sighed. "A pity, hmm? And all the time Terrakinetics were under the delusion that they were so strong."

Sophie's eyes lit up suddenly, a realisation dawning in her. She might have found another way to defeat Marella.

If Marella was a Pyrokinetic...Pyrokinetics controlled fire...Fire was weak to water...And fire was weak against...against...air!

Now who was a Guster again? Sophie scrunched up her eyebrows. Somehow, her eidetic memory seemed to be failing her.

_Come on, Sophie Foster, you've got to think!_

The Guster! Soreas!

Sophie watched in fear as the flames closed in around her, her heart hammering in her ears wildly. How could she contact Soreas? She wasn't given the contacting-watch thingy that Biana had. And even if she did, there was no way Soreas could get past security in time to rescue her and Sora. The flames would have swallowed her by then. And even if she used her telekinesis to keep the flames away, she knew Marella would just confront her with more fire and she wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace unlike the Pyrokinetic.

Sophie's panic, combined with fear and desperation and hope for Soreas to (somehow) arrive here to save the two of them mixed together and turned into a swirling vortex of helpless emotion, letting it all out in one piece. But...there was something different this time. It didn't feel like inflicting. It _wasn't _inflicting, but part of it. It felt more like inflicting, transmitting, and teleporting at the same time.

A warm tingle in her mind appeared as Sophie squeezed her eyes and thought of Soreas, then arriving here.

She had no idea what she was doing, but played along with it as she concentrated even more, her lower lip trembling slightly from the strain on her mind.

_Stupid Soreas Heks, if you're not going to appear here now, I swear, your sister is going to die anytime sooner!_

Sophie didn't know she was transmitting that thought to Soreas until an image suddenly appeared in her head. Soreas, his auburn hair slightly disheveled as his pale aquamarine eyes widened. He was alone in his room, clutching a picture of Sora, laughing with him.

Sophie gasped and a shock ran through her body as quick as lightning. She opened her eyes and heard a crackling noise in the air, and Soreas appeared, looking rather bemused and disgruntled at the same time.

_"Why the heck am I here?" _Soreas cried out. Sophie gritted her teeth in annoyance as Marella yelped and squealed in shock.

_"Just get me and Sora out of here, quick!" _Sophie yelled at him until her voice broke slightly. _"And knock down Marella too if you can!"_

Soreas's eyes widened at the mention of Sora, and scanned the area for his sister. When he saw her lying unconscious on the ground, with the flames ready to devour her, his jaw tightened and his eyes blazed.

"Coming," he muttered angrily as he made his way over. But Marella blocked him halfway on the way there, her arms outstretched to barricade his way.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked him, her eyes glinting dangerously.

Soreas rolled his eyes. "I know exactly where I'm going, stupid Neverseen newbie."

Marella's eyes widened. "You did not just call me that. You did not."

Soreas shrugged, a tint of annoyance in his voice now. "Yes, I did. You are a stupid Neverseen newbie. Why? Scared of the truth?"

Marella's eyes narrowed angrily, her body shaking with fury. "Look who's talking," she muttered under her breath.

Soreas raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?" he hissed.

Marella lifted her chin up defiantly. "I said, _look who's talking. _Aren't you pretty much the same? I know all about you and your relationship with _someone special_. Jin told me all about it. Why? Scared that I would reveal your pathetic little secret to Sophie, especially when she has a close connection to that elf?" She crooned sweetly when Soreas's eyes filled with fear and his cheeks burned of embarrassment.

Sophie frowned. "What? Who is it?" She held the flames around her and the ones around Sora back a little with her telekinesis, trying to hear their conversation more clearly.

"Anyway, that Vacker girl _is _quite pretty, don't you agree with me?" Marella lisped to Soreas amusedly, smiling at him teasingly, who was squirming uncomfortably by that point. "Pretty enough that a Black Swan operative's attention would be caught by her."

Sophie gave a start. "Wait, _WHAT? _You"—she looked at Soreas, who was shifting uncomfortably—"have a thing for Biana? As in Biana Vacker, one of my friends?"

"Yep, that's one of his big secrets," Marella confirmed with a smug smirk plastered on her lips. She glanced slyly at Soreas, who was shaking. "Want me to reveal more? What about the one concerning—"

Soreas gritted his teeth in fury. "Just SHUT UP, WILL YOU!" he screamed into Marella's face, sending a few breezes swirling around the ground, then picking up quickly and turning into a large, wild whirlwind that sent Marella screaming and buckling to the ground.

Instantly, the fires in the room flickered out and Sophie tucked a strand of blonde hair over her ear, only to have even more strands to fly out of place.

Sophie scrambled up and the wind stopped abruptly. She glanced at Soreas, and found him running over to Sora hurriedly.

"Oh my god, Sora, are you okay," Soreas shouted, cradling his sister's lifeless face into his arms, staring at it sadly.

Sophie joined him slowly, her eyes pricking with tears. "I...I'm sorry," she said to Soreas quietly. "She took a blow for me. I..."

Soreas turned to face her. For a moment, their eyes met each other's, but then pulled away.

Soreas sighed in resignation. "I'm angry, but I know it isn't your fault. It's fine."

_No it isn't, _Sophie wanted to say, but she didn't want to worry Soreas even more by letting him think she was feeling guilty.

And she was. She knew the consequences. But she couldn't help but feel that way.

Sophie glanced over at Marella. "Do you think she'll be out for some time?" she asked, looking doubtfully at the frail figure lying on the ground.

Soreas looked at Marella too, then faced Sophie quizzically. "Did you know her?"

Sophie tensed for a split second. Then she nodded.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said, turning away. "We'll discuss everything when we have the time."

"How did you even transport me here?" Soreas asked. "And don't give me that look like I'm supposed to know everything—'cause I don't. Only Sir Kerlof and Lady Lundian were allowed to know the full details about your abilities."

Sophie shook her head. "Honestly? I have no idea."

Soreas nodded in understanding. "I see."

They hauled Sora onto each one of their shoulders. Sora's head lolled frailly on Sophie's shoulder, letting Sophie realise how weak she was. She shuddered.

This was all her fault.

Sora took the blow for her. For Sophie.

And now she was teetering on the line between life and death.

Sophie released a sharp breath and pushed her disturbing emotions away to the back of her mind. She would have to deal with them later when they reached the base.

"You'll have to teleport us back, Sophie," Soreas said to her. "I have nothing on me, as you can see, thanks to you."

Sophie flushed. "Sorry." She closed her eyes and imagined the Black Swan base, and landing in her dormitory with Soreas. Her hope and desperation mixed with her wanting to go there pushed her and Soreas into a deep, endless pit. Down, down, and down, they plummeted into the abyss until their feet reached hard ground and the pit vanished, letting light break the darkness and revealing a vision of 2 clean beds, 2 wardrobes, 2 dressing tables and 4 plain walls.

A sense of familiarity washed over Sophie.

They were back in the Black Swan base.

"Wow," Soreas breathed. "Your power knows no boundaries."

Sophie blushed, heat creeping up her cheeks. "Thanks. I get that a lot."

"I can see."

A silence followed Soreas's quick reply. "So..." Sophie drawled out awkwardly, looking at Soreas intently. "First things first. You. Like. Biana?"

An even longer silence followed as Soreas's cheeks glowed bright pink. "Um. I guess so. Yes."

"As in, you like, _like _her," Sophie repeated her question by clarifying it further.

"Yes," Soreas answered with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

Sophie leaned back in her black sleek modern-looking chair and crossed her arms. "I might call it merely infatuation. You might want to further prove your so called 'feelings' for Biana."

Biana might be linked by a Mesmer Bond and was holding a grudge against her now, but she was still Sophie's friend, and Sophie still cared for her.

"And," Sophie cut in when Soreas opened his mouth to say something, "it might be hard to get Biana—ahem—romantically. She has a thing for Keefe, you know."

She didn't know why, but her gut prickled when she said Keefe's name out loud.

Soreas frowned, and Sophie wanted to laugh at the look on his face. "Yeah, I know that."

"Pretty obvious, am I right?"

"Completely," Soreas grumbled.

Sophie laughed, "Okay, back to serious business." Her smile vanished as her gaze switched to Sora, who was lying on Sophie's bed, motionless. "We should inform them that Sora's back."

"Right," Soreas said, and ran out of Sophie's dormitory hurriedly.

The door slammed loudly and Sophie was left alone in her own dormitory with Sora. She smiled sadly at the lifeless figure lying on her bed in an awkward position.

Sophie stood up and retrieved a pillow from Biana's own bed and slid it under Sora's head, lifting her up gently then letting her down again softly.

Sophie's fingers grazed Sora's cheek slowly. "I'm sorry," she mouthed sadly, staring at Sora's pale face.

Suddenly, the door swung open with a loud creak. Sophie jumped and retracted her fingers quickly from Sora's cheek and looked behind her as Master Leto, Madlen, Soreas, Keefe, Biana, Fitz, and Dex came in and squeezed into the small room.

Dex stared at Sora's motionless and deathly pale face in horror and worry. A bead of sweat trailed down his forehead slowly as he asked, "What happened to her?"

Sophie choked down the emotion in her throat and said in a hoarse voice. "She...I...Sora took an attack for me."

Dex's stare switched to Sophie and he looked like he was ready to kill her or something. Sophie winced at the intensity of his accusing stare. She knew Dex had a thing for Sora, and was bound to defend her first.

Mutters filled the dormitory as everybody's eyes switched to look at Sophie and Dex.

Dex's eyes were blazing and his fists were shaking. "So it's your fault, isn't it. That poor Sora was injured and she's nearly dead!"

Sophie bit her lip and swallowed the bile in her throat, pushing down her anger and frustration. What did Dex know? He didn't know anything about the endless trouble she was facing. Ever since he had become friends with Sophie, he was caring less and less for Sophie. Did he even know that she had been going through such a hard time? Who was he to treat him with such bad behaviour?

"Yes, it is," Sophie snapped at Dex. "And I know it very well, so there's no need to rub it in my face further. I know you have a crush on Sora and all, but this problem is too deep compared to your silly dilemma!"

"You—" Dex started to say angrily, but Sophie cut him off.

"Sorry, I need a little free time by my own," she muttered as Iggy flitted his blue wings and perched on her right shoulder. She pushed past everyone and exited the dormitory quickly.

"Just leave her alone, Dex," Sophie could hear Fitz saying. Her heart went out for him.

"And what do you know about this, huh, Wonderboy?" Dex retorted.

Sophie shook her head anguishly as she took pounding footsteps to a set of double doors leading to the medical center.

She pushed them open in anger and ran into Elwin, who was going out of the room.

"Whoa, watch where you're going!" Elwin cried out, then stopped when he saw her. "Sophie? What are you doing here?"

"I..." Sophie choked back a few sobs. She blurted out the whole story to Elwin, including the fight with Dex. She cried into Elwin's shoulder, feeling Elwin's arm around her as she sobbed her heart out.

"Shh," Elwin soothed her gently. "It's okay. So what do you want me to do?"

"I figured that the character change by myself isn't enough," Sophie uttered each word quietly. "Sora did a great job, but it wasn't enough. If I want to change, if I want to show everyone I'm not the same old little cowardly Sophie that came to the Lost Cities two years ago without anything to stand for, I'll have to have something to remind me of this important goal if ever I stray off that track."

"And...?" Elwin asked Sophie, pressing her to continue speaking.

Sophie swallowed and used her finger to twirl a long strand of hair that was long enough that it had almost reached to her waist.

"Can...can you cut my hair?"

**Multiple questions: What do you think of Sophie's choice to cut her hair? What do you think of Soreas's liking to Biana? Are you tired of Dex fighting with Sophie? (Honestly, I am. )**


	56. Chapter 58

**This chapter has a word count of 5,932 words. You'd thought I'd be tired of saying this, but...Longest. Chapter. Ever! Okay, I'm done. *heavy breathing* **

**And Neverseen finally arrived after, like, what? Slightly more than 1 week? And I read it in two days? I wasn't sure what to think of it when I first finished it, but after I reread it again(yeah, I rock at reading)I realised I _did_ like it. And...surprise. My favourite character is not Linh now. It is Tam. Ha, he's my favourite character now and I just love the relationship between him and Keefe.**

**Speaking of Keefe...**

***sticks tongue out in disgust* **

**Everyone is saying the ending to Neverseen is a cliffhanger, but I don't think it's much of one. I mean, c'mon. We all knew it was going to happen sometime sooner. And no, it wasn't the thing that Keefe did that pissed me off. And no, not Alvar either. **

**BUT IT WAS CALLA. Sorry Calla fans, I'm not a big fan of Calla. I know, she's awesome. Yes, she is, and I admire her for the thing she did, but I...I just don't like her. Maybe it's because I felt that SM focused on her too much, never focusing too much on Sior or Lur or Mitya...Oh yeah, BTW I love Sior. I'm just sad he didn't appear at all. Or maybe it's because Calla felt too like a generic character to me...Y'know, the usual stuff cliche characters do...But...I JUST DISLIKE CALLA. Okay, maybe not dislike, but I don't exactly like her either.**

**And oh yeah, did I tell you Biana was AWESOME in Neverseen? She's, like, more bad-ass and stuff. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers(people, I HATE spoilers) **

**Okay, so before I was sure Linh was gonna be my new favourite character. But NO. I mean, yeah, she's awesome at her Hydrokinetic stuff, and her character's great, she looks pretty (Fitz *coughs* crushes on *coughs* Linh) but there was something missing. And no, it's not because I think she's a Mary Sue. She isn't. I just think I would love her even more if Shannon focused more on Linh in the next book. And that's why Tam is my favourite new character instead. HE. IS. AWESOME! And oh yeah, I have new ships. So I'll list all my ships that I ship:**

**KeefexSophie**

**FitzxLinh (don't kill me, Sophitz shippers)**

**BianaxTam (don't kill me, Diana and Keana shippers)**

**JensixMarella**

**KenricxOralie (so sad they never got together)**

**Think that's all. I'm not those who ships all things. **

**Oh yeah, now I love Dex. He's one of my favourite characters now. NOW, Shannon Messenger, IF YOU DON'T INCLUDE MORE OF DEX, I shall come over to your house personally and demand it. OH, AND LINH AND TAM, SIOR, LUR, MITYA TOO!**

**Sorry for that outburst :P**

**So people have been wondering about me and my condition um last last chapter. Don't worry I'm alright now, but I'm a little sensitive about that topic now. So, don't. But thanks for caring about me! **

**You can read my A/N that I posted as a single if you want to find out more.**

**Now, on to the reviews!**

**Fangirl1: Yeah, I know what you mean by Sophie cutting her hair then changing for the worse. And Sophie's haircut _has_ been inspired greatly by Tris, but mainly it's because I watch Pokemon X and Y and I got this idea from Serena. But Tris helped me to visualize it better. And, I know I'm the creator of Soreas and I really shouldn't ship my OC with Shannon's character, but I really agree with you-they would be SO cute together-that's why I did the crush thing on Soreas anyway. Funny how in the real books, I ship Tam and Biana! And I'm really grateful for your care and concern for me, thank you so much for all the support, and I hope you like this highly anticipated chapter! :3**

**pen. edge: YES! I am so happy you agree with me on Soreas and Biana. :) And I'm glad you support Sophie cutting her hair too. I did feel Dex should have been more considerate, but remember, they're going through a stressful hard time, and Dex, being Dex, would snap anytime. Thanks for reviewing! :))**

**A Person: Oh, how I love your short and simple answers. :3 And thank you, I would have only continued my story because I realised you guys do care about my stories and me! Thank you again! :)**

**waterfallphoenix: I made it longer, but it's not that long as I exaggerated. I was thinking, maybe because it's been a long time, it would have grown. I was actually thinking more of the end of the shoulder blade, but whatever. :P Thanks anyway! **

**BookButterfly11: Thank you! That means a lot to me. And no, I'm not really thinking about Grady being part of the Black Swan, I was just playing around and I know Grady had something to do with those scrolls he was reading. :)**

**daringwolf2000: Dex is so underrated. I like him, but it's so hard not to hate him. I hope SM does realise that she so NEEDS to add more Dex in Sophie's life! . He's a good guy and I would want to have a chance for him. :)**

**anonymus: Okay! :)**

**Thanks to waterfallphoenix for following and giving a favourite to this old story and me! :) And thank you all for the care, love, concern and support!:)**

* * *

"Cut your _hair?"_ asked Elwin in an incredulous and disbelieving voice. His eyes flitted to Sophie's long waist-length blonde hair, and then back to Sophie. "Biana's is longer."

Sophie fixed Elwin with a pleading but determined expression. "Please, Elwin. Whenever I try to change for the better and attempt to be brave, my façade would slip away after some time and I'm left with nothing again. Look at Sora. That's my fault—and I know it. But I can't be guilty now. I have to change—and mean it this time.

"And to do that, I'll need you to cut my hair," Sophie finished with a breathless sigh. "You do have scissors, don't you, Elwin?"

Elwin froze for a moment, then relaxed and gave Sophie an awe-filled smile. "Yeah, I have. I understand, Sophie. You're doing the right thing. It's just...girls can be quite attached to their hair sometimes. I don't know if you'll regret it after you look at yourself in the mirror."

He took a long strand of her hair, and surveyed her slowly as he let the hair go and started pacing around, the rhythm of his footsteps out of beat, letting Sophie know that he was unsure about her request.

She stared at Elwin's banshee socks, his uncertainty spreading too. Did she really want to cut her hair—just to show that she was determined to change for the better? What would be her dilemma if it happened otherwise—and instead she changed for the..._worst?_

Sophie shook her head vigorously, trying to convince Elwin that she was going to be perfectly fine. "I don't care if I look horrible after you cut my hair. This is not to look pretty. It's to remind me about how serious situations for and what I must do to cooperate."

"Wisely spoken," Elwin told Sophie, resolve sparking in his voice. Determined, he started standing up and opening a wooden cupboard, then taking out a pair of glinting silver scissors and a piece of silky pink cloth. "Well, shall we start?"

Sophie nodded, and Elwin proceeded to wrap the cloth around her neck and slip his fingers into the scissors.

"This won't take long," Elwin whispered as he took a first snip of Sophie's hair.

Sophie nodded and closed her eyes, and sharp memories of all the times when she had hidden behind her long hair because she had been embarrassed or humiliated rushed through her head like a crashing waterfall. Well, this was going to change.

No more hiding.

It was time to show who she truly was.

A hot tear streaked down her cheek slowly as she turned to face the hard truth.

But it seemed right. And made her feel somewhat like...she did belong here.

After what seemed like an eternity, Elwin leaned back and tucked his scissors away into the cupboard, whisking the cloth away.

"Done," he announced, dusting the excess hair that had stuck on Sophie's neck. "Don't worry, I think you look very nice."

Sophie exhaled a breath, wiped her tears off her eyes, opened them, stood up from the chair slowly and stumbled to the nearest mirror.

She froze when she saw her reflection.

It wasn't really pretty...but it wasn't ugly either.

Elwin had cut Sophie's hair into a bob. Now, her hair only reached to halfway of her neck and the ends of her hair curled up slightly, matching perfectly with the structure of her face. It seemed more prominent now, since the hair covering the sides of her face had lessened considerably, showing more of her face and cheekbones.

She really did look like Jolie now.

And that fact made Sophie cringe and smile at the same time. Maybe this haircut was worth it.

Now everyone could see who she really was.

Sophie stared at her brown eyes, which seemed more noticeable—not like it wasn't noticed before, but now they seemed more obvious—and blinked them, watching her remaining eyelashes move up and down.

Maybe...maybe this was for the better.

"Well, how do you like it?" Elwin asked Sophie, coming over as she reached up and stroked her head, smoothing her hair down.

Sophie turned to face him with a radiant grin. "It's awesome! Thanks a lot, Elwin."

"I'm glad you think it is," Elwin beamed. "Now, do you have a new look to show everybody else?"

Sophie's smile faded as she thought of Dex. "Yeah, I do. But...Dex won't come and see me, will he?"

"I don't think that's a problem," Elwin told Sophie nonchalantly as he snapped her fingers, making an orb of silver light appear. Sophie watched in fascination as he sent the light out of the medical center. "I've sent a message to the others, telling to send Sora here so I can tend to her. They'll come here in no time."

Sophie froze at the mention of Sora.

"Are you alright?" asked Elwin, looking a little concerned.

Sophie didn't answer.

Elwin sighed and took her hands into his. "You have no need to worry about this now, Sophie. She'll be in good hands when she arrives here."

Sophie gave him a grateful smile.

Precisely at that moment, the doors swung open, making Sophie look behind. Soreas and Madlen were carrying an unconscious Sora in their arms, and Master Leto, Fitz, Keefe, Biana, and Dex were following closely behind.

Dex froze when he saw Sophie, his periwinkle eyes losing the twinkle in them. Actually, all of them froze when they saw Sophie.

Sophie gave them all a dirty look. "Yes, how do you like my new hairstyle?" she said icily, sighing when they all didn't answer. The look of shock was mirrored on their faces, so they even looked a little like copies of themselves.

Biana stared at Sophie. "D'aww, I actually liked your long hair. Why did you have to cut it off like that?" Then her eyes went blank. "Wait, why did I say that?"

Sophie fixed her a curious stare. Elodie was definitely turning on more power on Biana.

Keefe complained, "I agree with Biana, yo! I liked your long hair too! It had been so pretty!" He flushed when he said that, and his fingers scratched his mussed hair nervously.

Dex didn't say anything, a hard look in his eyes.

Fitz was the last one to speak. He came over to Sophie. "I...I like it." He said that earnestly, his eyes darting around nervously.

Sophie blushed and gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Fitz."

Master Leto nodded in approval too. "I like it too. It's much better than your previous one. You look much fresher and readier to meet your next challenge."

Soreas didn't say anything, his eyes were locked on Biana. Sophie narrowed her eyes. She still wasn't sure about this whole thing that spelled out, _creepy Soreas actually has a crush on my friend who is possessed by the Neverseen._

But she had learnt not to judge people by their cover.

Inside, they were just as raw and vulnerable as normal people were. They had feelings too but just didn't show them as much—and they hid painful memories with other characteristics that didn't match with their character—making people doubt them.

Soreas and Sora were like that. So what was the case with Biana?

Sophie honestly didn't know.

Madlen agreed with Master Leto (obviously).

"To me, it shows me that you are willing to change your character for anything, as long as it would save your loved ones and your world," he told Sophie, pressing a golden locket into her hands.

Sophie stared at it, tracing her fingers along the edge of the jagged diamond. "What is it for?" She swept over the front. It was made from glass and it felt smooth to her touch. Gold dust filled the inside, but Sophie couldn't find an opening or latch or clasp to open the locket.

"You'll know it when you truly need it" was all that he said. Sophie scowled at his vagueness, but thanked him graciously and let him click the metal chain on.

The necklace felt cool on her skin, and it felt cooler when the pendant rested on her flesh near the collarbone. Sophie's fingers went and touched it, meanwhile brushing against the Markchain she had retrieved from Prentice's mind.

She wondered what it was for.

But Sophie guessed it all came down to Madlen's annoying saying: "You'll know it when you truly need it".

She just had to let the flow of events carry her to the end of her story.

If there _was_ an end, that was.

"Dex?" Sophie asked venomously, looking at her best friend expectantly.

Dex whirled around. "It's fine, I guess."

Sophie looked away as Dex did the same too.

"Dude. Guys, break it up," Keefe told the two of them.

"Yeah," Fitz agreed with Keefe. "You two have to stop quarreling."

Both Sophie and Dex ignored them.

Elwin laid Sora carefully on one of the hospital beds and covered her in a soft blanket. He snapped his fingers, making an orb of blue light appear in his hand, at the same time putting on his iridescent glasses. He examined her burn on the back carefully, and took a few bottles out from the shelves of many medicines.

"This burn is pretty serious," Elwin murmured worriedly, while mixing some weird-looking liquids together. "This might take some work, but I'm sure she'll be as right as rain after a few days."

Master Leto ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. "I'm afraid we don't have as much time as a few days. The Neverseen is already planning to drop the first bombshell on us. It's just a matter of time before we do so, and she's a great asset to us."

"I know," Elwin said in a quiet voice as he applied a greenish balm to Sora's wound, placed a royal blue cloth over her burn and wet it with a bottle of Youth, thereby wrapping the wound with the cloth and a white bandage. Then, he pressed a small rounded vial of earthly yellow liquid to her lips and made her swallow the whole thing down.

Sora stirred a little, her hands trembling. Then she screamed and started buckling around the bed.

"Sora, stop it!" Elwin commanded her firmly as he set two hands on her waist in order to pin her to the bed. "It'll only hurt even more if you thrash around like that."

He gave her a sedative and after a moment, Sora settled down and began to sleep peacefully. But Sophie could see a crease of worry near her eyebrows.

"What did you give her?" Fitz asked.

Elwin held out the vial of yellow liquid, slanting it sideways slightly. "This is called Terrekalpanese, a special type of serum that specifically heals Terrakinetics when they are dealt with great damage"—he set down the rounded glass and picked up the balm container, opening the cover and showing them the forest green medicine, rubbing it in between his fingers—"and this is called Rison-sera. It soothes the user when applied to a burn. But I guess the Terrekalpanese was too strong for her—even though it was meant to have a healing effect, but for some reason, it worked otherwise. But I have no doubt she's getting better now."

Dex exhaled a held breath. "Thank goodness."

"I hope Sora's going to be okay," Sophie muttered to herself. Dex caught her voice and gritted his teeth angrily.

"You don't deserve to _hope_ for her, freak!" he screeched.

Sophie gasped, feeling hurt and rage burn everything in her.

Her body shook uncontrollably and her fists clenched, her eyesight dimming as black dots obscured her view.

"Please stop it, Miss Foster," Master Leto begged her, using his hands to hold her back. Sophie sank into his arms, feeling calm replace her fury.

But the hurt didn't vanish.

She quickly recovered and pursed her lips, tears threatening to fall over.

"Well, unless you want me to hope that she doesn't survive, I'm all good," she retorted sharply, glaring at Dex. "And who's the freak here? Didn't you make me one by making the ability restrictor and let the Council show it in front of the whole lot of residents in the Lost Cities, huh?"

Dex looked like he'd been hit by a car.

"Sophie—I—" His voice sounded hopeless. Lost.

Apologetic.

Well, it was too late.

Sophie sent one last glare at him, then stalked off to her dormitory and let her tears flow again. She could hear a few murmured voices and footsteps, but she didn't do anything as she let it all go.

A freak.

She might be one—she _was_ one, no doubt, but she wasn't letting Dex use that to his advantage ever again.

She dried her tears and sat up on her bed, unclasping her cape.

A piece of paper fell out, crumpled and slightly torn at the edges.

Curious, Sophie unfurled the note open and found some scribbles in a handwriting that she didn't recognize at all:

_Jolie's decease connected to Root Abyss. Follow the pretty bird across the sky. Prepare for war. Find out the truth behind telepathy and use it to advantage. Neverblaze._

_-Stella Moon_

Sophie's hands shook and the note slipped from her grasp, landing on the floor.

"The note that Estelle wrote?" Sophie asked herself quietly in disbelief, staring at the intricate letters as she picked the note up again. "What the...?" Her eyes scanned downwards and spotted more words:

_Sophie, you have to trust no one. Keep your enemies close—and your friends even closer. They might not seem what they are._

"What?" Sophie said, her heart palpitating furiously.

So Estelle had known about Biana's Mesmer Bond all along!

Why didn't she tell her?

She could have saved Biana if Estelle had actually told her. But now it was too late.

_I hate to break this to you, and I know you wouldn't like it at all, but Grady is out on the roam for Brant with some monster of a creature. But he has no idea that Brant can't be found—he's in the ogre cities, still in hiding! And the war might happen any sooner. You HAVE to go to Ravagog and return Grady where he should belong-he's going to get hurt!_

Sophie stared at the note with glassy eyes. She knew Grady would have done something like that, especially to the elf that had caused his daughter's death. "What?" she said listlessly, staring into blank space. "Oh, Grady, what have you done?" She bit her lip anxiously, then grabbed the note in her hand and raced out of the dormitory, running as fast as her legs would carry her.

She met face-to-face with Biana, and Sophie had to skid to a stop as she had almost crashed into Biana.

She stared into her beautiful teal eyes—but they looked empty as Sophie asked, "What do you want?"

Biana shrugged, her dark brown hair shifting slightly on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Her voice was filled with so much sincerity and earnest that Sophie wondered if she really was controlled by Elodie right now.

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah, I'm okay. But...can I be alone for a while?"

Biana smiled slightly, squeezing Sophie's hand gently. "Okay."

She let go of Sophie's hand and spun on her heel, heading down the next corridor and disappearing out of Sophie's sight.

Sophie smiled as the warmth in her hand slowly faded away. At least she knew her friends still cared for her. But there was a nagging feeling in her mind, and the locket on her chest suddenly turned significantly warmer for a few seconds, then became cool again. It repeated the cycle again and again as Sophie rushed to a random door named, "Guster Training Room" and flung open the door, hurrying inside.

She was met with a gust of strong wind, then more winds followed, picking up their speeds as Sophie stepped in.

In the hurricane, Sophie could spy two dark figures at the epicenter of it all. Fear trailed down her spine and made her shiver, but the locket on her skin remained cool. Could she trust them?

Suddenly, the winds died around her and the mist cleared. Sophie stared at the two unfamiliar elves standing in the center, crossing their arms and staring at her.

There were two elves, one boy and one girl.

The boy had shaggy jet-black hair that was drenched because of the mist, and his hair stuck to his scalp like a plaster, as he blinked his eyes, which were stormy blue and dark. He wore a cape of midnight blue as his fingers went to his pin, which was an image Sophie didn't recognize—silvery pink swirls of light escaping in 360 degrees from a sakura.

The girl had shoulder-length hair of the colour of burnt umber, and it hung down straight and clumped together like the boy, but there was a strand of silver hair that was pinned back together with some of her hair using a Prattles' pin. She had piercing dark sky blue eyes that bored into Sophie. Her crest on her hunter green cape was different from the boy's—fiery orange bolts of lightning zapping down from a cloud while drops of rain fell from the bright sky filled with sunshine.

"Um...hi?" Sophie tried, not missing their stares. Probably because of her weird brown eyes. Out of habit, she hung her head down to let her hair cover her face. But all that covered her face was a few strands of hair—and that was only when she remembered she couldn't hide behind her hair—not anymore.

She was glad of the reminder—but it kind of sucked having short hair too.

Sophie raised her head up and the girl said, "You're Sophie Foster, aren't you?"

The boy tilted her head to the other side, not saying anything. Sophie squashed the urge to squirm and steeled her nerves.

"Yeah, I am," she answered, nodding.

Silence followed her reply.

"And you are...?" Sophie continued, trying to break the silence.

The boy and the girl exchanged a look for a second, then the girl stepped forward, and bowed deeply, introducing herself, "My name is Mira Electra. Nice to meet you, Sophie."

The boy stepped in front of Mira, and mimicked her bow, saying, "And I'm Albie Leven."

"It's strange, isn't it, Albie?" Mira asked Albie, her eyes never leaving Sophie. "Sir Kerlof...he described the Moonlark as...awkward. Always hesitant. But she's different. She seems...confident. There are some trips in her confidence, but...it's not what I'd expected—especially the short hair."

"What's wrong with it?" Sophie said, an edge in her voice. "And why are you so...I don't know, prying? You seem to know how to read people very well."

"Bad skill?" Mira challenged Sophie, lifting her head to look at Sophie, who was an inch taller than her.

When Sophie was about to reply, Albie stretched out an arm to block Mira.

"You have to pardon Mira," he told Sophie apologetically. "She doesn't trust anyone but a few after the grave incident that happened so long ago."

Mira pushed his arm away, and smiled at Sophie. "Sorry, Sophie. But you are going to get used to. I just...I'm not ready to share our story yet, but I hope you can still trust us. But..." Her voice trailed off.

"But?" Sophie pressed.

Mira swallowed and continued, but this time there was a pleading tone in her voice. "But I can't trust you."

The five words hung over the three of them like large, dark shadows, and Sophie felt strangely hurt by them.

"Why not?" She asked. She was surprised when the words came out demanding.

Mira glanced at her sharply as Albie reached for her hand. She bit her lip. "Albie...Albie doesn't trust you either. In fact, most of the Black Swan cadets don't trust you."

"Black Swan cadets?" Sophie repeated. "What do you mean?"

Albie lifted his cape to show Sophie the sign of the swan stitched on his sleeve. But in addition to that, there was an emerald green gem sewed onto the swan's neck.

"There are five levels of the rankings when it comes to the members of the Black Swan," he whispered, fingering his gem. "And through our training sessions, if we do well in both those and missions the Black Swan leaders assign us—"

"Black Swan leaders?" Sophie interrupted. "As in, Mas—uh, Sir Kerlof? And Madlen?"

Albie nodded. "Yeah. The Black Swan leaders consist of five people, called the Collective. Sir Kerlof, Sir Madlen, Lady Lundian, Miss Heks, and Mr. Heks."

"Wait," Sophie told him, her mind spinning. "Sora and Soreas are members of the Collective?"

Neither Sora nor Soreas told her that.

Sophie wondered what more secrets were being kept from her.

Mira took over. "Yes," she replied, a tinge of irritation in her voice. "I don't know if being our organization's creation gives you the right to call them by their first names, but I shall bear with you for the moment. Lady Lundian is dead"—she barely flinched at the word—"but no leader is being replaced at the moment, due to reasons."

The way she said 'reasons' made Sophie wonder if the Black Swan was holding any more things from her.

"What reasons?" she asked.

Mira looked away. "Hate me, but I can't tell you." She pointed to a jagged scar that looked like it might have once been a burn, and a deathly one at that. "I learnt my lesson last time."

The hitch in her voice caught Sophie's attention, and sent her wondering if the scar and 'lesson last time' had something to do with their past.

"Anyway," Albie cut in, evidently trying to change the subject, "if we do well in both our training sessions and missions the Collective assign us, we get promoted to the next level. Right now, because of Mira messing up every time, we're still Cadets—which are represented by green, the colour of life, which means that we're still full of life, new and inexperienced. When we get promoted—if we ever do, that is—we will become Juniors, and we get exposed to more opportunities to go on more important and dangerous missions. What's more, secrets the Black Swan has been hiding to the Cadets will be revealed and we are supposed to swear fealty again as Juniors to never reveal the secrets to anyone else. After Juniors are Seniors, and after Seniors are Executives. Executives work with the Collective closely, and take charge along with members of the Collective to train the younger ones."

"Wait," Sophie whispered, a memory surfacing up in her mind.

_"Did I just hear my name?" asked Soreas as he appeared out of nowhere with Sora._

_Estelle sighed. "Lady Lundian."_

_Soreas scowled. "Fine, Lady Lundian. Satisfied?"_

_"Yes. Very. Now head off to training. You are going to be late. Madlen is going to scream at you."_

Sophie's hands shook and she gripped her cape tightly. If Madlen was training them—as he did with Sophie, why were they members of the Collective, then? According to Albie, only Cadets, Juniors, and Seniors needed to train, so why did Madlen and Estelle need to train them?

She didn't realise she'd spoken her thoughts out loud until Mira laughed, "It isn't what you are thinking. Miss Heks and Mr. Heks are both members of the Executive Committee and the Collective—so the Collective doesn't trust them as much as the other members. In other words, they're afraid that Miss Heks and Mr. Heks reveal the few secrets only the Collective know to the Executive Committee."

"Then why not just promote them fully to the Collective?"

"The Collective doesn't trust them."

"So..." Sophie tried to wrap Mira's words around her mind. "But you're still not answering my question. Why then, do they need training? Training of trust-build?"

Mira shook her head. "You still haven't figured it out?" She stepped closer, and mist surrounded the three of them hauntingly. Her voice turned dark as she said, "They're not training them for trust, Sophie. It's not even training." She shook her head. "It's an interrogation plus torture session."

Sophie's blood turned to ice.

"But...torture?" she asked in disbelief. Her head was spinning, and she needed to rest. She sunk onto the floor. "No...Estelle wouldn't do that to them. Nor would Madlen!"

She could still remember Estelle joking casually with the siblings. She wasn't too sure about Madlen, but she knew he was a good person. He _wouldn't._

Albie spoke up. "I don't think Lady Lundian or Sir Madlen wants to do that to Miss Heks and Mr. Heks. I think they have no choice but to do so. And before you pepper me with accusations, it's not the rest of the Collective's doing either. They have no choice too. They can't give their trust so easily to a pair of siblings. To ensure they hadn't given their secrets away, they need to interrogate them. And I know it seems that the torture part is unnecessary, but it's to ensure they won't feel tempted to offend them by giving out the secrets."

"Screw the secrets."

Mira shook her head.

"But how do you two know so much? It doesn't seem to me that a pair of Cadets would be told so much information—and information that would make people scorn the Collective."

Mira and Albie exchanged a glance again, and this time it was nervous.

"Well," Albie said. "We"—he dropped his voice to a whisper—"we spied on them."

"Spied?" Sophie hissed incredulously. "That must be pretty impressive. How'd you do that?"

Mira shook her head again. "I...I can't trust her, Albie."

Sophie transmitted, Please.

Both Mira's and Albie's eyes flew wide open.

Sophie took that as a good sign, and transmitted again, Please. Trust me.

Mira and Albie looked at each other.

Mira sighed, and pointed to the crest on her cape. "I'm a Forecaster—which means I can manipulate the weather as I want it to be. I also can create dark clouds, make it rain, make it shine, and create wind. So, basically, I'm considered a Guster and a Hydrokinetic too—but it's a few more abilities combined into one."

She stepped away from Sophie and Albie, waving her hands once in front of her. Mist formed around her, masking her figure until she was nearly invisible to Sophie's eyes. Then a snapping of fingers could be heard, and a strong breeze picked up, tearing away the mist screen and revealing Mira.

"That's awesome," Sophie remarked in awe, staring at Mira with a newfound respect for her.

Mira blushed. "I guess all those training from my Mentor wasn't for nothing. But you should totally see Albie's ability—it's super cool too!"

"Super girlish for a boy," sighed Albie as he stepped in front, making Mira snigger, "but I guess it's okay."

He snapped his fingers once, and pale pink flower petals appeared out of nowhere, swirling in the wind that had suddenly picked up. They were somewhat mesmerizing, and Sophie found herself staring at each of the sakura blossoms.

Albie snapped his fingers for the second time, and the sakura petals vanished. But something more amazing was happening. Arms that looked a lot like Albie's sprouted out of the ground and grabbed Sophie's legs, pulling her under.

Sophie shrieked as she tumbled to the ground and landed hard on the ground. The extra hands pushed her up and disappeared as pink petals again as Sophie brushed the dust off her cape.

"That. Was. Super. Cool." Sophie was amazed. "What ability is that?"

"I'm a Blossomer, and if you ask why the weird name, it's because it's meant to interpret the body parts sprouting out gracefully, just like a flower blossoming. I can make extra hands, arms, legs, ears, noses, and eyes appear anywhere on any surface. But if my extra body parts get hurt, the bad thing is that I also get hurt." Albie waved his hand, and an eye appeared on the wall closest to them with a swirl of sakura blossom petals. Sophie shrunk back.

"That is so creepy," she muttered as Albie's eye stared at them.

"But if you two aren't Gusters, why were you in the Guster Training Room, anyway?" Sophie asked. "I know, yeah, I get the part where Mira is sort of a Guster, but still, none of you are, aren't I right? So why are you here?"

"I should be the one asking you that question," Mira remarked, staring at her. "You're the one with four abilities—but you're not a Guster either. So?"

Sophie smiled, but then it vanished when she remembered the task she had to do. Grady was waiting for her. She shouldn't delay longer.

"I just...needed a place to think. And I ended up here."

Mira looked apologetic, and so did Albie. "So is it okay if we leave this room to you? Anyway, we were almost done practicing until Mira sensed you in the wind."

"You can do that?" Sophie asked, amazed as she stared at Mira.

Mira shrugged, her cheeks flushed with pink. "It's no big deal. Every Guster knows that the wind could sense intruders and whisper to you. So do you want the room or not?"

Sophie hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. Thanks. It was nice meeting you two."

"If you need a little wind, just whisper to the air, and I'll provide you with some. It is pretty warm in here without the wind, after all," Mira told Sophie.

"See you," Albie called as they walked out of the training room. Sophie stared at them leaving for a moment. Then, when the door slammed behind them, Sophie thought about the two of them. They had seemed so confident, so strong, yet Sophie knew they had been through a lot—and they didn't get the recognition they deserved.

Maybe she could do something about that.

However, she didn't have enough time to think about Albie and Mira right now. She needed to think.

She remembered Mira's last words to her, and she frowned in confusion. What did she mean by whispering to the air? So she could just whisper, and...wind would come? Because the air would carry her message to Mira?

Sophie decided it was worth a try anyway.

She leaned forward, feeling rather silly as she whispered, "Um. Mira. Or the air. Wind. Whatever. A little wind here, please?"

After a few seconds passed, a small breeze picked up, and started to grow stronger, until it swirled around the whole room. The cool air calmed Sophie down—but once Sophie got her mind thinking, she wasn't at all calm at all.

She needed to make a choice—and fast.

Sophie stared at the note Grady and Edaline had given her as the cool wind whipped her blonde hair around.

Would Edaline be worried?

What was Edaline doing now, anyway?

She pulled a loose eyelash from her eyelid and placed a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear slowly, only to get it blown away again when she let it go.

The wind around her raged as much as the storm inside of her.

What could she do? Teleport to the capital of the ogre cities—and most probably get killed, or bring Grady here? There were only two choices, and she had to make one quickly. Well, she could contact Edaline, but Sophie felt that Edaline wouldn't be able to do anything to help her anyway. Besides that fact, she didn't want Edaline to worry about Grady—which was naturally impossible—Edaline was a great worrier.

Bringing him here would be a wiser choice at first glance, but what would Grady do after he was here? He would just be in equal danger here—and the ogres would just steal him back.

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat as the realisation dawned in her, making her feel slightly nauseous.

Sophie had to teleport to the ogre cities and stop Grady.

Sourness sloshed around in her stomach, and Sophie realised she hadn't eaten a thing since Exile. She grabbed a bread from the nearest pantry. The gnome working there gasped when she entered, and she bowed her head down deeply until Sophie had grabbed a few elvin sandwiches and ran out of the kitchen.

She raced out of the raging vortex, and landed into a wind-free zone.

Gobbling down all the sandwiches in one go, Sophie almost choked on her umber leaves as the food slid down her gullet uncomfortably and into her stomach, clearing some the sloshy sourness.

"Okay, Sophie, you've got to calm down, relax and concentrate. Don't pluck eyelashes, alright?" She told herself firmly, though her fingers were itching to reach her eyes, where an eyelash tickled her eyelid softly.

She drew in a sharp breath, shut her eyes tightly and concentrated. A buzz zinged around in her mind as she thought of Grady, and his ice-blue eyes, blonde hair and warm smile—and her hope and desperation to see him again right now instantly mixed with her mental power.

The sheer power knocked Sophie off her feet and she collapsed on the hard ground in one of the many corridors of the Black Swan base.

A tingling sensation in her mind appeared as she fell into the seemingly bottomless pit again, and she didn't know if that was her imagination, but she could feel something grabbing her arm. She plummeted down and down, piercingly cold wind whistling in her ears until her feet reached solid ground.

A cold breeze blew at Sophie's feet and she shivered, but she had no idea where she was and what she was doing. It was like a string was pulling at her limbs, making her shiver, but she wasn't really conscious of what she had done. But her ears worked perfectly as they caught up a few queer sounds.

A small, weak, shivery neigh filled the air and a series of panicked-sounding huffs disturbed Sophie.

Where in the world could she be?

What were those noises all about?

"Sophie? What in the world are you doing here?"

A whinny sounded in the air.

* * *

**Question: My mind is a blur right now, so I can't think of any questions, you can think of your own and tell me your thoughts on this chapter and the new characters! :)  
**


	57. Chapter 59

**Well hello there again! In about 15 days' time, I'll be flying out of Singapore for vacation and I'll be gone for about five days, so don't bash me if I suddenly disappear. **

**And now, copic is in Singapore, roaming about. **

**But she did come over to my house once and we had plenty of fun talking about stuff. And we did the Name-that-book challenge and the Blindfolded book challenge, and we drew stuff together.  
**

**And guess what-I GOT MY EXAM RESULTS! ! ! Y'know PSLE results? Yeah. I did pretty well, and I can enter a good school! Which is more Chinese-culture based than English, and I'm glad about that. I got an A* for my English and Science, but SERIOUSLY? **

**I GOT A B FOR MY MATH.**

** ARRGHHH! **

***cries out in horror***

** I got an A for my Chinese, and a merit for my Higher Chinese, and that's not bad.**

** B-b-b-b-but B for Math? **

**Excuse me while I go in a corner and cry.**

** ANYONE HERE AWESOME IN MATH? I NEED YOUR ENLIGHTENED KNOWLEDGE!**

** *bangs head on table* **

**But seriously, I really do suck at Math and I really want to improve. But my brain won't cooperate. Whhhyyy, brain? **

**Word count: 5,997 words. It IS again the Longest Chapter Ever, but it only beat last chapter by 50 words or so. So I am tired of this word count thingy, but i'm never gonna stop counting the words, because why not? It's fun counting the words!**

** And I kinda like this chapter.  
**

**But I had trouble writing the first part of the chapter. But when I struggled through it, it flowed easily...so...**

**AND THIS CHAPTER HAS MY DEAR SORIANA! ! !**

***throws confetti around***

***dances like crazy***

***starts creating hashtags* : #Soriana #SophieKnows #AlbieKnows #MiraKnows #CluelessBiana **

**Okay, I'm a little hyper today. But seriously. Soriana is love; Soriana is life. If those two can't sail, there's still an equally awesome one: TIANA!**

**Now, on to the reviews!**

**daringwolf2000: I'm so glad you like Albie and Mira! They are my darlings. The Black Swan's torture is not mentioned in this chapter, but it might be next chapter. I dunno. I don't plan ahead. And I don't know if that's a bad habit or not...But it's fun! Thanks for reviewing! Sending love :)**

**waterfallphoenix: The wind-whispering thing is not based on LTSF. I just thought of it when I wrote. And I did read LTSF, but it wasn't very nice. And don't even mention LTSB, it has a strong dose of second-book syndrome. I'm still going to read LTWR when it comes out to support the author, though. But now that you mention it, it _does_ seem like how the sylphs do it. Ah, forget it -thanks for reviewing! :) **

**pen. edge: It's okay, I can do without one review any day, but it makes my day when people review! And haha, my chapters _are_ getting longer. But I'm still not confident writing 10,000 word chapters-that's a feat I haven't been able to accomplish! My longest chapter is 7000+ words, but I'm not going to tell you what it is for. I might publish it in a new story someday! And my writing is professional? Woah, I didn't think that. I'm just 12, haha! And I want to teach you, but seriously, you have a lot of talent too! Hope you like this chapter! :))**

**Guest: omg THANK YOU SO MUCH! :)))) Maybe not, but you made my day!**

**A person: Oooh, you guessed correctly! And if you haven't read Neverseen, it's okay to read my intro-it doesn't have some super big spoilers-depending on what you call spoilers. I consider spoilers as 'ooh, you know so-and-so died' *cough* Allegiant *cough* or 'so-and-so betrayed them!'. But I didn't put these kind of things inside the intro, so it's safe...at least to me. Um, to why they would be tortured, I think you should read the last chapter more carefully-I'm pretty sure I explained it there. And, ummmmm...the new characters are Mira and Albie? ? ? And WOAH, I totally forgot about Prentice too-I'll find a way to include him next chapter! Thanks! :)**

**Fangirl1: Yay! I'm so glad you find last chapter cool and intense! And yeah, I improved a WHOLE LOT. Just...look at chapter 3. And look at...this chapter. Or last chapter. And...I would think: 'was that really me last time?' :) Neverseen was awesome, but I didn't like it very much at first-it felt like it was missing something-and I went and reread the whole thing, and that was only when I started to like it as much as the first three books. The new characters, Tam, Linh, and Calla, were awesome too, but I felt that they were not really...real. Two-dimensional too. And I know I mentioned it in one of my previous chapters, but I so want the fifth book title to be Swan Song! And your sister...I don't know if you read it already (long time not updated *sighs*) but still, tell your sister this: Even my mother can read faster than you. And my mum reads DAMN slow-but that's not on purpose. So if she was doing it on purpose, I hope I'm not insulting you or your sister or anything (sorry if I am), but your sister is just plain selfish. And what kind of logic is 'I like this book more, so I can read it first!'? Or 'I started reading it first, so I like it more!'? Once, I introduced KOTLC to a friend, and she was so crazy about it, and crazier than me. So tell your sister one more thing: There are WAY bigger fans of KOTLC than you, no matter what time they'd read it. I know you probably have the book already, but I hope you can tell your sis that. Hope you like this chapter! And judging by how long this is, I of course am a rambler too...Le sigh. I feel you!**

**ferntailwarriors: Hi Keefster fan! Come one come all! :)**

**Jennie: Thank you for loving this story! Ah, I feel warm and cuddly inside...And I'm sorry if it's a little boring, and I'll try to make it more interesting-not this chapter though, I'd written it before you reviewed! So thanks for the criticism!  
**

* * *

_Hurt._

That was the first word Sophie heard when sounds pricked at her consciousness disturbingly.

_Help._

The word was laced with worry and there was a strain in the mysterious voice that Sophie never noticed before.

_Unsafe._

_Escape!_

The words blew a hole in Sophie's mental barriers as they rushed into her mind like the hot quick wind blowing out from a hairdryer, waking her up almost immediately. She groaned and shifted her body, wincing when the hardness of the ground pushed into her back.

Sophie had no choice but to open her eyes. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the surroundings as she looked around, her head spinning dizzily. She rested her head on her palms, trying to make sense of where she was.

Dark, blurry edges and lines appeared slowly as she stood up, her legs wobbling slightly.

Memories came flooding back like a rush of raging water as the hard realisation hit Sophie like a bullet train.

She was in the ogre cities.

Then she remembered something that sent her heart racing: didn't the ogres have the ability to sense an intruder in their cities? She was an intruder, all right, and judging by how long she had been unconscious—it felt like a long, long time—wouldn't she already be discovered?

Maybe she was, and she was held prisoner here.

But it didn't feel like an ogre prison—ogres usually tortured intruders mercilessly in their horrible prisons.

So where was she?

The locket Madlen had given her felt cool on her skin—not as cool as it had been, though. Sophie could feel its temperature rising steadily as thoughts filled her mind.

Then another realisation hit her, a more relieving one this time. No wonder the ogres couldn't sense her.

She was wearing a Markchain, the one Prentice had given her in his mind.

Sophie fumbled for her Markchain under her tunic, and clasped it tightly in her hands, fingering it as her warmth filled the triangular pendant. Markchains gave off a certain kind of enzymes that ogres could sense, telling them that the wearer of the Markchain was permitted to be in Ravagog.

Was that why Prentice gave it to her?

Had he predicted that she would end up here, someday?

Sophie scanned her surroundings again, this time with hope radiating off her chest. Her mind stopped spinning furiously and she could finally adjust to the mental voices that were pricking at her mental barriers.

A silvery, familiar voice filled her mind.

_Sophie?_

Sophie's eyes flew wide open. That voice. . .

_Silveny?_

_Friend! _Silveny exclaimed as she filled Sophie's mind with vivid images of what had happened.

She had been sleeping peacefully with Greyfell slumped against her when a jerking feeling on her tail woke her up all of a sudden.

Shock and fear accompanied the pictures of black hooded figures with a few ogres filled Sophie's mind as she was dragged away quietly but harshly. They had tried to pull Greyfell away too, but Greyfell woke, and he was too strong for them as he kept kicking and thrashing until he broke free of them.

Silveny had been knocked unconscious with a sweet, sedating syrup and she recalled being pushed into here and the sound of shattering against metal rung in the air.

_Stranger here, _Silveny transmitted. _Scary monster too._

As if on cue, a ear-piercing roar vibrated in the air. Sophie jumped in fright as she lost her contact with Silveny. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she surveyed the figures slowly.

There were three big shadows lurking around. The winged horse must've been Silveny, the hulky bulky shadow was the monster, and the figure of an elf, slumping against a wall, could be seen too.

A blurry outline of a elf kept on blinking in and out, and Sophie wondered who that was too.

She hurried over there and bumped into the figure, causing both of them to fall back onto the ground.

Her eyes widened when she saw an elf she didn't expect to see here.

_"Biana? What are you doing here?"_

Biana stood in front of her, her teal eyes glowing eerily as her brown hair tumbled down her shoulders, looking at Sophie silently.

A chill creeped down Sophie's spine, and fear leaked into her heart as she stared at Biana, feeling a little panicked as she hissed, "Why are you here? Did you grab on to me?"

"I didn't," she said, then tilted her head towards two figures standing behind her. "They did."

Albie Leven and Mira Electra stepped into the gloom, revealing their faces from the shade.

Sophie took a few steps forward, her locket growing warmer on her skin each second as she probed the two Cadets, _"You_ grabbed on to me?"

Mira shrugged, her sky blue eyes flashing dangerously as she shook her head. "Did the Moonlark really think that we could be fooled by her? There was definitely something up with you, Sophie Foster. You said you needed time to think—and I gave you that. But you didn't realise me and Albie were still in the Guster training room, hiding in the wind."

Albie didn't say anything, but he regarded Sophie coldly and silently, so unlike the Albie she had seen just minutes ago.

"Why are you suddenly so cold with me?" Sophie shot back at Mira. "You're just like Sora. First you appear off as friendly, then you become cold, then you become warm again—wait, no, scratch that, that was Jin who was cold. I know you don't have a secret twin like her, so, what's with your sudden mood change?"

Biana stepped forward. "We're in Ravagog, the capital of the ogre cities," she whispered to the three of them. "All this shouting is going to get us discovered." Her eyes lingered on the Markchain on Sophie's neck, which had fallen out of her tunic. "And we had better keep that pendant close."

Sophie whirled to her. "And you," she hissed. "Are you really what you seem anymore? You're controlled by Elodie, I know that. But you're so bipolar—sometimes you're acting weird, sometimes you're acting as per normal. What's happening to all of you?"

Biana tilted her head. "You're one to talk," she said simply. "Who was the one who became so cold to us over such a long period of time? Rejected my kindness when I was true to giving it? Then try to become the old Sophie again—but failed, and now, cutting your hair short? If Mira, Albie, and me are the ones getting out of hand, you're worse."

That was the last straw for Sophie, and something inside her snapped.

She turned to Albie and Mira first, trying not to seethe as she gritted her teeth and said, "I don't know what's up with a bunch of Cadets trying to act nice to me, then turn all unfriendly again, but I'm not going to care."

Then she turned her attention back to Biana. Something in her heart softened as she looked at her friend.

"Biana, I have no idea what you're trying to get at with this behaviour, and at least I have a reason. But I'm going to trust you now, and Mira and Albie too, so we can get out of here as soon as possible. Maybe Cadets aren't as strong as Soreas and Sora, but they're still very talented."

Albie and Mira exchanged a glance, then Albie smiled, looking rather sniveling as he said, "We're not Cadets."

"We're far more privileged than those grimy creatures," Mira agreed, pulling off her black cloak and letting it drop to the ground as Albie did the same. The patches on their sleeves were still embedded with the sign of the swan—but the jewels sewn on them were of a different colour now.

Sophie's jaw dropped to the ground. "What—" she started to say, but then someone who Sophie assumed was Biana placed a hand on her shoulder, and suddenly Biana's hand didn't feel like Biana's hand anymore.

Elodie Talle pushed Biana aside, who screamed in terror as she dragged someone along with her. Someone who was kicking, thrashing, and screaming, but his hands lay flat and limp against his sides. Someone who Sophie deemed so aching familiar, she couldn't help but have a twisting feeling in her heart.

"Grady!" She screamed piercingly, and lunged for him, but Elodie kicked her in the shin hard and she fell to the floor, writhing in pain. In the corner of her eye, she could see Grady mouthing her name in disbelief and happiness, but Sophie knew the situation now was far too serious to be happy about a family reunion.

She managed a smile at Grady that seemed to say, _Everything's going to be okay._ But she didn't believe it herself as Elodie lifted Sophie's chin up to force her to look at her as she glared at her defiantly.

Elodie set Grady on the ground harshly as a slight smile played on her pinkish lips, directed at Sophie as she said, "Sophie Foster. We meet again. But this time, it's not about me."

She turned to Albie and Mira, who were looking equally confused as Elodie purred, "Meet my two little puppets, who are also conveniently on the Executive Committee."

* * *

"What?" Sophie whispered as she looked at Mira and Albie with a betrayed feeling leaking into her heart. She sat up slowly, staring at the red, glowing ruby sewn on both of their sleeves, and her heart sank.

She _knew_ Albie and Mira were too strong to be just Cadets.

"You're part of the Neverseen?" she asked, feeling disbelieving as she stood up shakily, leaning against Biana, who looked just as shaken as she was, and shook her head. "I trusted you. And you trusted me too, remember?"

Mira shook her head, and her face was a mirror of confusion as she said faintly, "I _am_ in the Executive Council. I don't know why I said..." She shook her head again, and stared up at Elodie like she didn't know her at all. "And I thought this woman was part of the Black Swan too!"

Elodie smiled sweetly, and the smooth sugar in her voice intensified the urge for Sophie to squirm angrily as she walked in a circle around the two terrified Executives, saying, "A Mesmer could be quite convincing when she wants to be. Didn't your former trainer tell you that? Poor thing, she's dead right now. I know you two loved her, especially the boy. And now she's gone, and you can blame _her."_ She tilted her head towards Sophie, and Sophie panicked as the two Black Swan members faced her with a betrayed look in their eyes.

"Albie, Mira," Sophie hissed. "She's a Mesmer, and an evil one at that—you can't fall for her tricks, especially now! Don't you realise she's mesmerizing you right now, hoping you'll bow down to her?"

"I guess..." But Mira's voice was hesitant.

"You really wouldn't want to do that, Miss Electra," Elodie said to her, her smile vanishing. "You might not trust me now, but let's just say I know every single detail about you and your boyfriend's arduous past."

Mira's eyes widened. "You don't! And he's not my boyfriend," she added, her cheeks flushing pink, but it was hard to tell because of the gloom.

Grady thrashed a little more, and Elodie shot him a disgusted look.

"That guy's a little harder," she sighed, a strain appearing in his voice, "but even his Mesmer skills can't beat mine. It _is_ taking its toll on me, mesmerizing him, and the two strong-minded wimps, nevertheless."

She narrowed her eyes more, and Grady stopped thrashing, his eyes instantly turning blank and lifeless as a statue. Sophie nearly screamed in horror.

"Stop it," she yelled as she hurried over to Grady's side.

Elodie waved her hand, and Sophie suddenly couldn't move. Her limbs, her whole body was frozen as something in her mind tingled, making her paralysed from head to toe. Her eyes caught Elodie smiling sweetly at her, and Sophie's body almost melted from the sweetness of her smile.

"That's right, good girl, don't move," she said, her voice suddenly turning icy. Sophie felt her head nodding, and she stood rooted to the ground, halfway in running position as Elodie took a deep breath and whistled loudly, making Silveny whinny.

An ogre came into view. Its body was lumpy and he swaggered over to Elodie's front as it stared up at her with beady eyes.

Elodie sighed and gestured to Biana. Sophie could see Elodie's tense shoulders relaxing a little.

And Biana screamed, her eyes darting around in fear, like she had just woken up from a dream.

"Where in the world am I?" she shrieked, looking around quickly. Her eyes caught Sophie's. "Sophie? What is going on? What happened to you? Why do you have short hair? Who are those two teenagers?" Then her eyes met Elodie and the ogre. Her body stiffened in fear. "The Mesmer...and an ogre? What have they done with you, Grady, and those two people?"

Sophie couldn't answer. Her mouth felt like dried up plaster, and it seemed like it was sealed as she tried to answer Biana, but couldn't.

"Enough!" Elodie roared. "Soon it will be you." Her eyes narrowed into slits, but Biana didn't do anything. "I finally got rid of that Mesmer Bond," she muttered. Then she nodded to the ogre. "You know what to do." Then she turned to Albie and Mira again.

Biana, sensing danger, vanished quickly. But the ogre narrowed his eyes, sniffed the air with his nose, and then directed his gaze towards a blank space.

Biana suddenly reappeared with a piercing scream, clutching her head and her knees buckling to the ground.

"Stop it, stop it," she cried, thrashing in agony on the ground. Sophie's heart twisted with every cry for help, but she couldn't even move an inch.

Her heart filled with rage, fury, anger, and fear, but then she stopped, considering something, the sound of Sora's voice filling her mind.

_"Sophie, you don't need that kind of negativity in your life! Yes, you have the power to destroy, but more importantly, you have the power to save. You'll get us out of this tight spot, I just know it."_

Hope and warmth filled Sophie's heart, washing out the darkness from the negative emotions and tuning out Biana's agonized screams, Elodie's crooked smiles, the ugly ogre, Silveny's neighs, Grady's blank and lifeless figure, and Mira and Albie's frightened expressions. She thought of happier things, like making up with Dex the moment they got home, and becoming best friends once again. Or Fitz smiling at her, telling her that he trusted her. And Keefe laughing with her as they watched Dex and Fitz squabble. Biana and her snuggled up in their dormitory, and her whispered voice telling her everything was going to be alright. Grady and Edaline laughing happily as she tackled them into a hug. Iggy blasting one of his legendary farts into Silveny's face.

The warm and positive emotions filled Sophie with a happy, giddy, and most importantly, determined mood as she pushed the swirling mound of joy out of her body. Suddenly, she could move again she snuck up on the ogre and tackled it down to the ground. The ogre instantly shoved her off it, and started to charge towards her. Sophie cursed, then dodged out of its way just in time, making it smack itself headfirst into a sharp jagged rock. Blood flowed as Sophie looked away. She rushed over to Biana, glancing over at Elodie. Luckily, she was too absorbed with Albie and Mira as she helped Biana up, whose legs weren't vanished now.

"I'm sorry," Sophie whispered as she pulled Biana into a quick hug.

Biana looked confused. "For what?"

Sophie shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes. She blinked them back hurriedly as she denied, "Nothing. But we have to save Mira and Albie. Up for a sneaky tackling session?"

Biana grinned widely, showing her perfect white teeth. "You're on it."

She tapped Sophie's arm, making her vanish as she did the same too. Grasping on to Sophie's hand to signify she was here, Biana counted quietly from one to three, then charged toward Elodie, tackling her to the ground as the Neverseen member cried out in agony.

Suddenly, behind them, Grady stirred, and Mira and Albie looked like they had just awoken from a dream.

Mira glared at Elodie, who was whimpering on the ground. She waved her hand, and a bolt of lightning struck Elodie in the back.

Sophie and Biana screamed.

"Don't worry," Albie told them. "She's not dead."

He raised his arms, and cherry blossom petals fluttered around in the air near Elodie, and ten arms sprouted out of the ground, smacking Elodie's head hard as a strong jet of water shot out of Mira's left hand and drenched Elodie in a puddle.

Biana stared. "Who _are_ those people?"

Behind them, the ogre roared. But he wasn't the only one.

The four of them turned around to see seven more ogres, with another weird-looking creature that towered over them five feet. Its fur was dark green and its back protruded of sharp gleaming spikes. The monster's fangs gleamed in the dark, and its eyes glowed red as it fixated their sight on them.

Beside the four of them, Grady sat up. Sophie noticed the movement and rushed over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked him worriedly, pulling him into a tight embrace. She snuggled her head into his shoulder as tears pricked her eyes.

"I'm so glad you're fine," he whispered as they stood up. His eyes caught the monster, and he sighed. "That was the one I used to charge into here. And of course, they caught me and threw me into here." He glanced over at Silveny, who was lying on the floor, a jagged scar on her left hoof. "I don't know how Silveny came to be here, but the ogres were horrible to her. And suddenly, this woman came." He nodded over at Elodie. "She mesmerized me before I could scream, and I couldn't do anything. She's stronger than I thought."

Sophie gripped the hem of his shirt, which was dirtied and torn. "I told you not to go after Brant!"

Grady shook his head, his eyes filled with an emotion Sophie couldn't recognise. "He...He wasn't here after all. He had left as soon as I came in, roaring for Brant. Coward."

Sophie gripped his shirt tighter. "Don't do this ever again, okay?"

His face was emotionless as he said, "I can't promise anything. I—"

Behind them, Elodie stirred, her hand twitching.

Grady nodded over to the female Mesmer. "I'll take care of her. I've never seen her before—though she looks familiar. Must be an unregistered Mesmer."

"She's Lady Cadence's sister," Sophie whispered. Grady stared at Elodie in shock, then shook her head sadly.

"Lady Cadence would be so ashamed," he whispered back as he headed over to Elodie, his face grim.

Sophie directed her gaze back to the ogres and the monster. Her friends weren't doing much good.

Biana vanished, and kicked the ogre's chest, but the ogre merely grunted as he accidentally stepped on Silveny's hoof, the one that was injured.

A shivery whinny erupted from Silveny as she thrashed around in pain on the ground.

Mira raised her hands and dark clouds gathered, sizzling with electricity. Albie chose that moment to smack an ogre's face, and a bolt of jagged lightning hit his extra hand, making it disappear into floating petals, then he held out his real hand in pain, where a third-degree burn had appeared, two inch deep.

"Albie!" Mira screamed as the storm blew out of proportion, raining down on the monster and striking it with electricity that seemed so much brighter than before.. The monster roared and collapsed onto the ground, kicking up dust as the smell of sizzling meat filled the air.

That seemed to rouse the other ogres as they growled and pounced on the monster, tearing away the greenish meat from the monster's belly and gobbling it into their mouths.

Sophie closed her eyes, gathered all her fear as her eyesight dimmed to black hate, and pushed the whirlwind of emotions out of her body.

The ogres collapsed on the monster's belly, lifeless. Sophie screamed as Biana suddenly appeared.

"Thank goodness," she said. "I thought you were gone."

Biana managed a smile, but it disappeared when she glanced behind. "Tense there, isn't it?"

Sophie directed her gaze to where Biana was staring. Elodie was forced by Grady to slap herself in the face until her face was red and her skin was starting to split open.

Sophie couldn't help but smile despite herself. "This reminds me of when he made all the twelve Councillors slap their own faces."

Biana looked grim as she glanced at Albie and Mira a further distance away. Mira was tending to Albie's burn, crying as she murmured, "I'm sorry" as Albie comforted her that it wasn't her fault.

"We should go and check on Silveny," Sophie told Biana, suddenly remembering the injured alicorn.

"Right," Biana agreed as they ran over to Silveny's side. Sophie dropped to the ground and started stroking Silveny's silver mane gently as Biana started applying a pink, glittery salve to the wound on her hoof.

"What _is_ that?" Sophie asked. "It kind of reminds me creepily of sparkly poop."

Biana said, "It's a salve that Elwin gave me. He said it could heal any burn, specifically animal burns. He also gave me a whole bunch of other medical stuff while he was at Havenfield, checking us before we went to the Black Swan." She closed her eyes, and a pained look appeared on her face. "It...It seems so long ago now. How many months have passed when we first came into the Black Swan base? I think...about five or six months or so. I don't really keep track of time. But"—her voice cracked—"I miss my mum and dad. And Alvar, too. Would we ever see our families for real again? Would we even be able to stop them?"

Sophie stopped stroking Silveny and held Biana's gaze. She wasn't sure about the first question. But she was sure of the answer she was about to give for the second question.

"Yes, we're going to stop them," she told Biana with absolute conviction in her voice, and in her heart too. Determination and confidence swirled in her too, and she wondered if this was how Sora felt too when she gave the pep talk to Sophie.

Biana relaxed her squared shoulders, and somehow Sophie could see herself in Biana, convinced by Sora like how Biana was now convinced by Sophie. Maybe, maybe she could possess the same level of confidence as Sora. And all of this mess would be cleared up.

Sophie transmitted to Silveny, _You doing fine?_

_Good. Sophie, Friend. Pretty girl. Sophie and pretty girl nice._

Sophie grinned at Biana, who looked utterly confused as she said, "What?"

"Looks like Silveny's new nickname for you is 'pretty girl'."

Biana glared at the alicorn, but then laughed. "Well, I already know that. Sometimes...it's annoying. But I guess, that's how it is. When you're an elf, you're naturally pretty, but...when you're a Vacker, everyone else seems to tell you that you're even prettier."

Sophie smiled. "Then I'm glad I didn't become a Vacker and rejected the adoption offer from them."

Biana swatted the insult away. "Hey, hey, I didn't say it was a bad thing. But...it's true. Somehow, being a Vacker means I'm Miss Perfect, or Princess Prettypants, and I have to excel at everything. It...it's certainly stressful. But I'm happy being who I am."

Sophie thought about Biana's last sentence. She was happy being who she was.

But was she herself happy about who she was?

Biana seemed to share the same thought as she asked the same question Sophie had been asking herself.

Sophie thought for a moment, then said, "Yes."

Even if her life was a mess, there were still little things in her life that she wouldn't want to give away. And even though she was basically a lab experiment by the Black Swan, she still believed that she could do good to her world.

And she was going to do just that.

* * *

"You sure you want to do this?" Grady asked Sophie as Elodie spun around tipsily, giggling hysterically as she lost balance and tumbled to the ground.

Sophie nodded rigidly as she said, "The Council and Lady Cadence deserve to know. So...I take it that you can handle her yourself?"

Grady nodded.

"Then hold on tight," Sophie muttered, climbing on top of Silveny's back as she closed her eyes and fell into the void again, thunder clapping as she tore a hole and the four of them tumbled to the ground at Everglen. The bright gates blinded Sophie's eyes, and it brought a prickle of nostalgia into her heart.

She didn't realise how much she missed the Lost Cities.

But she couldn't be here for long.

Sophie nodded to Grady, blinking back tears as she hugged him goodbye. "You sure you'll be okay?" Grady asked.

Silveny transmitted, _Friend! Stay! Visit!_

Sophie nodded, patted Silveny's back and disappeared into the void again, but not before waving at Grady.

She landed onto the ground of the ogre prison again, and this time, she headed over to her friends.

She looked at Albie's burn worriedly, which was fading, but there was still a tinge of red. "Are you going to be okay?"

Albie nodded. Mira was still crying as she tackled him into a hug.

"It's going to be okay," she whispered as she brought her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck.

The two of them stayed like that for a few seconds before Biana coughed awkwardly and they pulled away. There was a huge goofy grin on her face, and Sophie was sure she had one too, but Sophie still had to say, "We need to go back first and talk about this—then after that you two can, uh...do your stuff."

Albie and Mira blushed crimson red, and they both muttered, "Right."

Biana shook her head, but she was smiling as they linked up their hands. "Seriously, how old are you two?"

Mira's answer was lost as they tumbled into the void again.

"Woah," Albie breathed, all of his embarrassment suddenly lost. "What is this place?"

"Shut up," Mira told him as Sophie tore a crack in the void and the four of them landed on the ground in a heap in the Guster training room.

"So," Biana said, crossing her arms. "You two have a lot of explaining to do. Who are you guys?"

Albie glanced at Sophie.

Sophie crossed her arms too and said, "Full introduction, and no lies this time. Deal?"

Mira sighed and said, "Deal." She smoothed her burnt umber hair down as her dark sky blue eyes filled with resolve.

Albie looked the same as he agreed too—though like Mira, he looked a little reluctant.

"My name is Mira Electra," Mira sighed, "and this is Albie Leven. We've been together since forever—we were the best of friends—"

"Were?" Sophie interrupted.

Mira shot her a look. "Unless you're saying the kiss was just a _friendly _one?"

Albie blushed, and Sophie shook her head. Biana was smirking as she said, "Well, continue."

"I'm a Forecaster," Mira said as she waved her hand, making dark clouds gather. They grew heavier and sank lower as she said, "I can control the weather for what I want it to be."

The clouds released a downpour of rainwater, washing the three of them thoroughly. Sophie shuddered as the cold water hit her, and Biana did the same as Sophie and Albie.

The storm stopped all of a sudden, but the dark clouds still gathered.

"As a result, you can say that I have multiple special abilities that are combined into one," she continued, twirling her finger and making a ball of white light appear, then an orb of water. She waved her hand, and snow began to fall. Sophie blinked as a snowflake landed on her hand and melted into water.

Mira waved her hand again, and the snow suddenly froze into ice, morphing into sharp daggers of ice that she hurled towards Albie.

Biana shrieked as multiple more arms grew out from Albie's real arms, and their many fingers grabbed hold of the ice daggers before they hit him.

"I'm a Blossomer," he said, dropping the ice daggers onto the ground and making his extra arms vanish. "I can make extra body parts of mine appear on any surface. It's handy when we need to sort out the Collective's possessions neatly."

"But you're members of the Executive Committee," Sophie cut in.

Albie and Mira nodded.

"So why did you lie to me? You told me you were merely Cadets. I also saw the green jewels on your sleeves—and now they're red!"

Mira exchanged a look with Albie. "We didn't know, honestly. Back that time, I felt that someone was telling me to steal the green jewels from two Cadet uniforms, so I did, and then you came and the voice told me to tell you that we were only Cadets. And I figured it was that Mesmer woman, wasn't it?"

Biana frowned. "So...Elodie mesmerized you two. And what the heck happened to me too? Because I felt like I had been mesmerized too!"

Mira's look told her that her theories were absolutely right. "But the link between you and her is long gone already."

Sophie relaxed. "I'm glad that's cleared up. But how old are you two?"

Albie shrugged. "We don't really keep track of age, but I guess we're about sixteen to seventeen or so."

Something sparked in Sophie's brain. "And do you know how old is Soreas?"

Mira scrunched up her eyebrows in serious thought. "I don't know why you're asking this, but I think he's about fifteen or so."

Sophie exhaled a breath. At least he wasn't too old—an elf about Albie and Mira's age crushing on Biana would be too icky to watch.

Biana nudged her. "Hey, why suddenly bring up Soreas?" she asked.

Sophie looked away, smiling. "Nothing. Anyway, I'm just so happy he's not too old for—"

She stopped herself before she could say out Biana's name. She knew if she ratted out Soreas's secret now to Biana and two Executives, she would definitely face the wrath of Soreas and then he would be humiliated sooo badly—Biana didn't like him anyway.

Biana gave her a strange look, and asked her, "Too old for what?"

Mira and Albie exchanged a knowing look with Sophie, and Sophie blanched in surprise.

"Wait, you know too?" Sophie interjected, then transmitted to Albie and Mira, _you know that Soreas has a thing for Biana?_

Mira nodded, tapping her foot on the ground. "Mmhmm, it's pretty obvious too," she said, then dropped her voice to a whisper. "And it's soooo cute."

Albie laughed. "Yeah, it's hilarious to watch him stare at—" he stopped himself just in time, when he realised Biana was towering over them with a confused expression.

"Stare at who?" Biana asked, one of her perfect eyebrows raised up questioningly.

The three of them scattered away like pigeons.

"Nothing!" Albie said—a little too quickly. Mira nodded her head along with Sophie, who tried to put on her most innocent look that she could muster.

"What, does Soreas have a crush on someone?" Biana asked cheekily, looking at Sophie. Sophie almost did a double take. Biana thought Soreas liked her!

"Yeah, he does," Sophie said, trying very hard to keep her smile hidden in the corners of her mouth. Behind her, Mira and Albie both burst into hysterical laughter.

"Never mind," Albie told Biana, slapping her back so hard she coughed. Mira giggled and did the same as she waved her other hand and said, "Sayonara! I learnt that from Miss Heks!"

The doors swung shut.

"Yeah, and when we go and see Soreas, he would be thinking, 'Biana is so cute'," Sophie muttered in Japanese, making Biana frown in confusion.

"Why do I hear my name—" she started to say.

Right on cue, the doors swung open and Soreas stepped inside. He raised his eyebrows at Sophie, and said in a perfect Japanese accent, "Yeah, like I would think that."

His face told her otherwise.

Sophie rolled her eyes and argued back, "Denial is redundant. Someday, you need to confess it to her."

Soreas didn't look at Biana as he said, "I know it seems stupid—me, a tough guy falling for a perfect Vacker like her? And there are more important things to focus on right now, so no chance about that."

"Aaaannnd, I hear my surname," Biana said. "Seriously, what are you guys talking about? Are you talking about me and Fitz or something?"

"I hate to admit it, but you're completely right," Sophie agreed, ignoring Biana.

"Um, guys, can you speak in normal language, please?" Biana asked, her face twisted with confusion. "I'm completely lost here."

Soreas flashed a handsome smile at Biana, and Sophie had to look away so that she wouldn't burst out laughing out loud at the goofiness of the whole situation.

But her joking mood disappeared as she whispered, "How is Sora?"

Soreas looked down at his hands, twining them together. "After you left"—he shot a look at Sophie, who groaned—"Sir Kerlof just exploded—well, not really exploded, but then nobody looked after Sora for a while—except for me, Elwin, and Dex—I still don't know what's up with that guy though. Sora's condition is improving, but not by much. Elwin said it would probably take a week more."

He handed a sandwich to Sophie, then another to Biana. Sophie couldn't help but notice that Biana's had more vegetables stuck between the two pieces of bread, and scowled.

_Talk about biased, _she thought.

"If you want to go and see her, I could take you there," offered Soreas, either oblivious to her scowl or ignoring it.

Sophie nodded, a plan forming in her mind. "Perfect. Can we go there now?"

Soreas nodded. "Come along."

She needed to apologise to Dex—but she was expecting an apology from him first. And she wouldn't be surprised at all if Dex was _right_ by Sora's side now.

* * *

**Question: There are a lot of things addressed in this chapter...so...**

**1\. I really think Biana is going to break Soreas's heart any time soon. How about you/do you ship them/ is Soriana okay for their ship name/ if not, what would you suggest/ and who do you ship Biana with in the real books?**

**2\. Perfect - our dear Wonderboy-hater reaaalllly loves Sora. Do you ship them/ do you want it to be a two-sided or one-sided crush?**

**3\. Thoughts on Albie, Mira, and Elodie?**

**4\. What do you think should happen in the next chapter?**


	58. Chapter 60

**Hey guys, I'm back with a new update! And I vowed to complete this story before New Year's Day 2016, so I can focus more on my other fanfictions. "Wizards In Foxfire" is currently under hiatus, because I'd never thought I'll have writer's block on anything. Well, screw that. Writer's block doesn't exist, but the story seems to drag when I try to write it. And that's currently the same situation with "Payback's A Nightmare". I'll try to get over it as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I'll update this story as soon as possible, because this story actually has a deadline: 1st January 2016.  
**

**This chapter has a word count: 6, 018. And I repeat the mantra all over again: **

**Longest. Chapter. Ever. Published! ! !**

**And when I'm stuck on all my stories, I revert to my problem solver: the mysterious new story I haven't told any of you yet what it is. It helps to type other stories too, you know. Like without the stress of actually updating.**

**Okay, I'm super excited for New Year's Day. Because:**

**1\. I really need to finish this story by then! ! !**

**2\. I'm publishing a new story! ! !**

**3\. Totally unrelated, but Rachel Platten's new album, Wildfire, is coming out on that day too! ! !**

**4\. It's a totally new year, what else! ! !**

**5\. I'M STARTING SECONDARY SCHOOL LIFE! ! ! HOW EXCITING IS THAT! ! !**

**I think that middle school is primary school plus a little bit of secondary school, and high school is higher secondary plus junior college, and college is polytechnic/university. That's my view on USA education. **

**Now, on to the reviews:**

**A person: Prentice was healed, but he became unconscious and I totally forgot about him until you told me, LOL. I'm such a bad author! And sometimes my mind is a muddle when it comes to math. And usually during exams or even mock exams I would panic, and then I would be like "Oh no, how do I do this? It's such a simple one but somehow I can't even solve it because I'm panicking!" I guess that's why I got a B in Math. *cries* Do you panic during exams? Hope you like this chapter! And Tam and Linh are SO awesome, but like everybody else says, they're a little two-dimensional. Oh well. Not enough character development I guess. So you've read Neverseen? Yay for you then! :)**

**Hello: Your username reminds me of Adele (sorry!) And high-five, Soriana and Dora (LOL) shipper! It's a bit silly to ship your OC with an actual character from the books, but I still do it shamelessly! And thank you and I hope you like this chapter! :) **

**There are a lot of new characters in this book, and Adria, Sadie, Sam, and Christina are compliments of Peace88's imagination. So this chapter is for her! But Iorgo and Perona and the unnamed random guy are my own characters!**

* * *

Dex was sitting on Sora's bed, staring at her tranquil but pale face when Sophie, Soreas, and Biana went into the medical centre. Elwin was at the other side of the room, putting several medical bottles and salves into a black satchel. His face looked grim as he looked up at the three of them, but lightened up when he saw Sophie.

"Ah, my girl Sophie," he said in relief, coming over to Sophie and pulling her into a tight embrace. Sophie hugged him back fully, sinking her head into Elwin's banshee-design clothes.

It felt so much like coming home.

But her happy and wistful mood immediately faded when she saw Sora and Dex together. Dex had seen them, but made no move to greet them like Elwin did.

She would have to talk to him later. Alone.

"Is Sora still unconscious?" asked Sophie, her chest tightening when she saw the peaceful look on the Terrakinetic's face.

_That _was her fault, alright.

Elwin managed a small smile. "She is, but her condition is gradually improving from the daily dose of medicine I give her. She's a strong girl, alright."

His gaze averted to Dex, who was still leant over Sora, muttering a few words.

"Well, about Dex, he's been here every day, when he doesn't have training lessons to do. He seriously pissed off the old guy." Elwin shook his head disapprovingly at him.

His head tilted toward Sophie. "But so did you."

"Sorry," Sophie mumbled under her breath. But all Elwin did was grin.

"You don't have to apologise to me, Sophie. The one you should apologise to is Sir Kerlof."

"Where's Keefe?" asked Biana, her hands twisting together. Sophie didn't miss Soreas's frown.

"He's with Fitz in the dining hall." Elwin's smile disappeared. "Mr. Forkle has an important announcement to make—blasted the message on the speakers just now. Every member of the Black Swan is going there right now. So I suggest you all and Dex better hurry there."

A chill went down Sophie's spine. "What is it?"

"I don't know," mumbled Elwin. "But whatever it is, we all know it's not good."

* * *

"What do you think it could be?" asked Biana as they raced down the halls, with Soreas leading the way. Sophie could see several Black Swan members rushing in the same direction too. She got a few curious stares, but that was all. Mr. Forkle hadn't told them about her disappearance.

"I don't know," Sophie muttered as they skidded to a stop. "Why are we stopping, Soreas?"

Sophie peeked over Soreas's shoulder, and her eyes widened when she saw Mira and Albie, with another girl, who had piercing raven black eyes and straight, long chestnut brown hair that reached to her shoulder blades. Her high cheekbones made her look prettier, and her long, thick eyelashes and rosy cheeks completed the look.

_Why does she have black eyes? Is she a human? But she looks so pretty, she must be an elf._

Sophie voiced her question out loud, and the girl shifted on her feet, looking very uncomfortable. But when Soreas opened his mouth to answer for her, she lifted up her hand to stop him.

"No, I'm not one of those," she said. Her voice was more hard and confident than Sophie thought it would be. "I'm an elf. My name is Adria, and I'm one of Miss Heks's students—I'm a Terrakinetic, like her. But now that she's absent"—she glared at Sophie, who squirmed—"we can't continue with our lessons as per normal. Right now, there's another Terrakinetic teaching us, but it's not the same."

"You have to mind Adria," murmured Albie. "She has quite the temper for a Junior."

Mira nodded her agreement.

Adria scowled, her arms shifting so they all could see the pale silvery blue jewel sewn on her sleeve. "I'm also a Vanisher, so. . ." She tilted her head towards Biana, who stared at her in curiosity. "I've met her before."

"I have?" asked Biana, pointing towards herself. "Well, sorry, Adria or whoever you are, I've never seen you in any Vanisher classes before. I take one-on-one with my Mentor, Ack. I can't say I've seen you before, or any Vanisher in that case."

Soreas, Albie, and Mira shared a secret look. Biana caught it, and Sophie did too.

"What are you trying to say?" Sophie asked.

Mira shrugged. "Who said we were trying to say anything? You'll have to phrase it better—"

"—Moonlark," Adria finished.

Sophie scowled instinctively. "Call me Sophie."

"But Sophie isn't your real name, is it?" challenged Adria.

Biana turned to Soreas. "This girl is way too annoying."

"Excuse me?" Adria asked Biana, her voice laced with offense and danger.

"Nothing," Biana said chirpily, and Adria narrowed her eyes.

"Whatever," Soreas cut in. "We're running out of time." He gestured around the hall. It was empty now. "Let's hurry over to the dining hall."

"So," Adria said to Sophie. "You're the famous Sophie Foster, right?"

Sophie nodded.

Adria scowled. "Remind me and the others to keep away from you."

Sophie was taken aback, and a little hurt. "Why?"

"Almost everyone hates you." Adria gritted her teeth. "Of course Executives and Collective members such as Mr. Heks and Miss Heks, Mira and Albie, will suck up to you. Cadets, Juniors, and Seniors won't. You'll see why later. Just listen to the whispers."

With that, she stalked past Soreas and ran into the dining hall, leaving Sophie gaping at her.

"Seriously, what is her problem!?" she asked.

As the doors banged loudly behind her, Albie shrugged. "Adria's the wild one. Only her best friend, Sam, can get to her soft side."

"If she has a soft side at all," muttered Biana. "And what's with her brown eyes? She's pretty tall for a teenager too. And she reminds me of someone, but I can't put my finger on it."

Mira giggled, a note of hysteria in her voice.

"What?" snapped Biana, irritated.

"Nothing," she said nonchalantly. "It's just so funny watching you all talk about Junior Adria."

Dex hadn't spoken for the whole time, and he remained that way as they entered the dining hall. Sophie glanced sideways at him. She needed him to be alone with her after this whole mess.

"Perfect," Mira muttered. "The whole mass of members staring at us. What better luck."

A rush of warm air whipped around Sophie as she stepped onto the marble floor. The walls had changed from white to obsidian black, and when her eyes scanned the watching crowd of Black Swan members, she couldn't see Adria anywhere.

The tables were laden with nothing except for hundreds of crystal spheres, glinting in the dim light.

"What are those?" whispered Sophie.

Soreas shook his head. "It seems like we will have a voting to carry out in this session."

Soreas led them over to their normal table, where Keefe and Fitz were already seated there. Their eyes lighted up when they saw Sophie and Biana, and stood up to hug them.

Keefe smiled a genuine smile as he embraced Sophie. "It's been soooo boring without you, Foster. Time to get the party started!"

He was as silly as ever. Sophie slapped his arm lightly and said teasingly, "You can't ever get rid of me."

"I would never want to get rid of you," he said, and Sophie looked away, her cheeks flushing as she sat down.

Fitz gave her a smile. "You okay?"

Sophie's heart fluttered still as she mumbled, "Yeah." She glanced over her shoulder to see Biana and Soreas sitting together.

Fitz followed her gaze, and he scowled at the 'couple' sitting together. Sophie nudged him teasingly.

"Hey, no need to get overprotective," she teased him. "Soreas's a good guy."

His answer was drained out by the amplified voice of Master Leto. Sophie's gaze travelled to the stage, where he, Madlen, and some other woman she couldn't recognise were climbing onto.

Biana let out an audible gasp. "Hey, that's my Vanisher Mentor, Ack."

Ack had pale, light, translucent silvery blue eyes, and wavy platinum blonde hair that was probably around the same length as Adria's. She had a slight tan and a striking figure, with lithe footsteps that made her every move seem dainty. She soothed her black cloak that reached down to the top of her ankles.

"She looks as pretty as ever," Biana gushed, and Sophie and Soreas rolled their eyes, sharing a look.

Ack seemed rather nervous as she scanned the crowd of Black Swan members with her blue eyes. And when her eyes landed on Sophie, her expression hardened.

Sophie caught it, and shuddered. Ack wasn't a force to be reckoned with, that was sure.

"Good evening everybody," Master Leto's voice boomed into the loudspeaker. "We call you here not to have dinner"—a bubble of laughter rang through the hall—"but to share grave news with all of you and how we shall proceed."

Madlen stepped forward. "Less than one month ago, a group of members broke into Exile, and Sophie Foster healed Prentice."

Whispers rose into the air, and Sophie couldn't help but remember Adria's words.

_Just listen to the whispers. You'll see why._

Sophie strained her ears to make out the words.

_They broke into EXILE and they didn't pull me along?_

_That moonlark and her friends just joined, and the Collective trusts them instead of us? We've been here for years, and what for? To sit here, wasting all our years away for nothing?_

By the pale complexions of Master Leto, Madlen, and Ack, Sophie could tell they heard the whispers too. And a tinge of sadness and pity pricked at Sophie's heart. Somehow, she sympathized with them. And she wanted to help them.

But her train of thoughts was interrupted by Ack, who stepped out and said in a low-pitched voice, "I know you all are upset. But I am too. I wasn't invited to break into Exile and be a proud and important part of the healing. I was angry. Furious, in fact. I even demanded for Sir Kerlof to let me join them. But he refused. And I grew even angrier, and if it wasn't for someone, I would have made another reckless mistake. So...please. I hate to admit this, but...the Moonlark's the only last big hope that we have in our hands. We created her because we wanted somebody who could be strong enough, and could stand out from the rest to change the world and save it. And if we cooperate, we can all play a part to help everyone. Just...please. We'll be going nowhere if we continue like this."

She started to pace around the stage. "I joined the Black Swan because I felt that the world needed an opposition voice to voice against the Council, who have been making stupid and reckless decisions ever since Sophie Foster attempted to read the mind of King Dimitar. And I needed to go through several tests to ensure I was true, then I swore fealty to them: 'I would do anything in my ability to help my world.'. That's what I said to the Truth fire. To Estelle Lundian." Her voice cracked at the last two words, and Sophie's eyes filled with tears. "And for a long time after I was accepted in as a Cadet, the Black Swan didn't do anything accept guide the Moonlark."

Her eyes settled on Sophie.

"And I was furious again. It seemed like I was useless, and Sophie Foster, a Telepath that can't even block human thoughts, was getting all of the Black Swan's attention. But when she was accepted into the Lost Cities, my chance to shine came. I even got to sneak into Foxfire and slip her notes with Lady Lundian."

A gasp escaped from Sophie's mouth.

"But after that, things returned back to normal and we got grumpy again." Ack's blue eyes shifted from the left to the right. "But now, the Moonlark has returned to us—"

"—And did absolutely nothing—" A voice called out from the back.

"—She did heal Prentice," Ack corrected, raising her voice. "And you have to admit that's no feat that we can accomplish. But contrary to what I said, the Collective still has a mistake on its part. They didn't consider us, and went with their own private group of heroes. If only they had counted us in—Sophie Foster wouldn't have ended up in an electrical prison with Sora Heks, and then confronted by a Pyrokinetic of the Neverseen. As a result Miss Heks is now in a coma, and who does everybody blame?"

Ack's voice turned sickly sweet as her eyes settled on Sophie once again.

"Of course, we all blame Miss Foster."

Murmurs started in the air again, and Sophie shifted uncomfortably in the cold, hard seat.

Keefe pulled her closer, and she rested her head on his shoulder. It felt so pressuring to be blamed for a certain tragedy.

She closed her eyes as Ack continued, "But that's because we didn't help out. And the Collective didn't allow us. However, this is the part that we are wrong too. Even if the Collective didn't allow us, we should have taken the initiative, ignored the rules, and helped out as much as we can. Think about all the things we could have redone for the better.

"And now, that is what I propose to do." Her eyes fluttered close as Sophie's opened. "I have a proposal for everyone—including the Collective—"

"And who do you think you are!?" a voice shouted from the front. "You're just another Mentor! Not even one of the proper members with the status of at least a Junior!"

Ack's pale blue eyes glinted dangerously. _"Really?"_ she asked, her voice dripped with venom. "How wrong you are. I think it's past time I show you who I really am."

She fished in her black cloak for a crystalized bottle, and downed the contents in one gulp. Then, she removed something from her eyes.

Ack's silvery blue eyes were now raven black, and her hair was the colour of chestnuts.

She threw off her black cloak to reveal a gleaming blue jewel sewn beside the Black Swan patch on her sleeve.

"Adria," Sophie breathed as the hall rang out with collective gasps. But Mira and Albie, who sat beside her, didn't look surprised at all. And Soreas was just smiling amusedly.

Sophie whirled over to them. "You," she accused. "You knew all along."

Soreas shrugged, and Albie said, "You really can't blame her. We assigned you, Keefe, and Biana to be double agents, but that was a cover for the Neverseen so they won't know there's _one more_ of us lurking inside their base."

"You mean—she's—" Sophie gaped, and her mind ran through all the people she had ran into during her Neverseen time.

"That girl," Biana hissed. "The one that interrupted us when we were talking about making Keefe forgive you."

A memory flashed into Sophie's mind, clear as day.

I hope so_, Sophie transmitted, not feeling very optimistic._

_Biana smiled, put her hands on top of Sophie's. "I know so—"_

_"__Hey!" An unfamiliar voice rang out behind them, and Sophie and Biana turned to see a Neverseen figure with their arms crossed. It was a girl, with blonde hair that flowed to her waist. "No talking in here!"_

"Yup, I saw her too," Keefe butted in, "she was the blonde one. And here we go. Overreaction: incoming."

True to Keefe's word, everyone was screaming and yelling, and chatting avidly about Adria's double identity.

"But why would she use her Neverseen disguise as Ack?" Sophie frowned in confusion. "The Neverseen would recognise her as a member of the Black Swan."

"Adria is a Vanisher _and _a Terrakinetic," said Mira. "She has her ways. You know."

"Can't believe I was being mentored by _that_ girl," Biana muttered.

"And gushed about how pretty she was," chuckled Soreas, and Biana slapped his arm. But that made him laugh even more.

Madlen stepped forward. "Stop," he said. Instantly the dining hall silenced, and Sophie could even hear someone fiddling with their crystal sphere as he continued, "I know this is shocking, but please recover, because we still have to hear Miss Adria's proposal."

"You go, Dria!" A voice shouted from the back.

Adria smiled in the dim lights. "Thank you, Sam," she said politely. "I hereby suggest that all of us, excluding the Collective, are stripped of our titles, regardless if we are Cadets, Juniors, Seniors, or Executives, and work together as one without having to care if we are on a position high enough to take part in an important mission or make a request to the Collective. And in return, the Collective has to be fair and just and listen to our every opinion. And that's the only way we can work together and actually accomplish stuff." She turned to Master Leto. "As I hear, Prentice and Miss Heks are still unconscious, am I right, Sir Kerlof?"

Master Leto nodded.

"Very well." Adria nodded. "Elwin and our best paramedics will work with whoever thinks that he or she is capable of waking Miss Heks and Prentice up. And our next problem. . .defense. We need all the best defenders on the front lines—the border of the base, which is the outside and Root Abyss. The Council is on the prowl for not only the five of them, but all of us. They have sworn to hunt us down, and I believe a certain Miss had guided them in the right direction."

Sophie scowled as Adria smirked at her.

"The Neverseen are also our enemies, and the Council doesn't know—or can I say _refuses to think?_—that they are the real nemesis that could destroy our world. And they have shown that they are capable of anything. And we have to check if we have any aromark on us, because the ogres are working with the Neverseen."

"And lastly. . ." Adria's eyes scanned the crowd. "I hate to say this, but I. . ." She hesitated. "Never mind, it's not important. Yet. Nobody knows of this except me, and I'm not sharing the news just yet. Just. . .just trust no one."

_Jolie said that too, _Sophie thought. _And Edaline told me that hindsight's a dangerous game to play. I must be careful too._

"I think she thinks there's a spy among us," Albie whispered to all of them. "It's obvious what she's implying."

"A spy?" Sophie said quietly, turning her head around them. "As in, a traitor?"

Mira shot her a look. "Don't say that so loudly."

"All in favour of Miss Adria's proposal, light up your Truth Spheres," Madlen called out.

"Um, I'm kind of confused here, old guy," Keefe called out.

Master Leto scowled. "The Truth Sphere will light up with Truth fire only if you think your true opinion."

Some of the Truth Spheres around Sophie had already lighted up—Mira, Albie, Soreas had already lighted up their Truth Spheres.

Sophie focused on her own Truth Sphere, and gazed at the crystals covering the inside of the ball. Her vision blurred as she thought loud and clear, _I agree with Adria. I really do. _

She felt astonished when the crystals inside melted to nothing, clearing the glass surface of the Truth Sphere. A flame of Truth flickered to life, and after a few seconds, it grew as bright and strong as her friends'.

Dex, Keefe, and Fitz had lighted up their spheres too. As Sophie gazed around, she could see that most of the spheres were already lighted up, with the exception of a few.

She glanced at a waifish looking boy with blonde hair that stuck out in bangs and greenish blue eyes who was sitting next to Mira, and a slender, lanky girl with reddish orange hair. Her greyish blue eyes looked nothing but bored as she rested her sharp V-shaped face on her fist.

Theirs were the only one at their table that wasn't lighted up.

"Seriously, Iorgo, Perona, what are your problems?" A black-haired boy asked the pair. "Don't you want to work together as one united people, regardless of your ranks? Then why did you even join the Black Swan in the first place?"

The boy named Iorgo rolled his eyes and said, "We swore fealty, okay? Why are you doubting our loyalty to the Black Swan?"

"Everyone's allowed to have their own opinions, worthless Cadet scum," Perona added, flipping her hair over to one shoulder.

"Hey—!" the black-haired boy protested, but Soreas held him back.

"Iorgo and Perona didn't agree to treat us fairly," he said. "Just ignore them."

"We're in the Executive Committee too, half-rank," Perona shot back. "Just because you and your weakling Terrakinetic sister got places in the Collective, it doesn't mean you can order us around."

"But he didn't order you two around, did he?" Mira smirked when Perona fell silent. "That's what I thought, Not Caring-Perry, and Ironic Iorgo. You two really are a pair."

"Thanks for the compliment," Iorgo said after a few long seconds, causing Albie to roll his eyes.

"You'd think they would have thought of a less cheesy and better comeback," he sighed. "They really are a pair. Perona doesn't really know what's going on, and Iorgo is always at a loss for words. Or poses cheesy comments. You know."

"I heard that," Iorgo shouted at Albie, and it was Soreas's turn to roll his eyes.

"Shh, they're counting the number of in favour," he said, silencing him.

"Now he did order you around," Sophie heard Perona whisper to Iorgo. Sophie frowned. They seemed so unfaithful and disloyal, and they didn't get along very much with the other Black Swan members, even though they were Executives.

Could they be the spies for the Neverseen?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Madlen's voice saying, "Two hundred and one in favour, and seventeen not in favour."

"And I believe we have a decision," Master Leto said, clapping his hands.

The whole dining hall burst into applause—except for Iorgo and Perona and a few others—and they ripped their jewels off their patches, and threw them into the air until all Sophie could see was a sea of coloured jewels and all she could hear was the cries of triumph and happiness.

Adria spoke. "Thank you all for your support, well, _mostly_"—she glared at a girl who was sitting at the next table—

"What?" the girl cried out. "I ain't Sadie for nothing!"

Adria rolled her eyes, and was about to say something else when the girl interrupted her again.

"I'm not scared of voting against, you know," Sadie shouted. "'Cause I'm definitely not scared of a weak little Terrakinetic."

Adria's fists clenched, and even though Sophie sat quite a distance from the stage, she could still see her whole body visibly shaking.

"Say that again," she said, her voice trembling.

Sadie sniffed disdainfully, and stood up with another girl. She had cropped jet-black hair and wide almond-shaped eyes. "Christina also voted against. For all we know, you're working secretly for the Neverseen—it's hard not to doubt a girl when we all know her parents were once Neverseen. And we all know Adria's still grieving over the death of them, aren't you, little Adria? And you know that the Black Swan were the ones who did away with them too. And the Neverseen and the Black Swan would know you as nothing but a project for the Neverseen."

Sophie duly noted how she mentioned the Neverseen's name before the Black Swan's.

"Why, how _dare_ you," Adria uttered, her voice growing louder and louder by each syllable. The ground suddenly began to shook.

Master Leto stepped forward. "Now, Miss Adria, we'd prefer if you—"

"Shut _up_," Adria snapped. "I swore fealty to the Black Swan, with a full heart, like all of you here. If I was untrue, why would the Truth fire even burn for me? And Terrakinetics are anything but weak, Sadira Elyon. Let me show you how wrong you are."

"No, Dria—" A boy stood up from the back, the boy named Sam.

Adria held up a hand. "Don't worry, Sam. I'll ensure you're safe."

Sophie was sure that wasn't what Sam meant, and by the look on the boy's face, Sam knew it too. But he shut his mouth without further complains, and sat down, but that was before he shouted, "You don't know what you're doing, Dria. You don't want to cause another earthquake and harm millions of people."

Something in Adria's eyes lightened, and her tense squared shoulders relaxed. "You're right, Sam," she said. "I don't want to hurt anyone that's innocent." Her gaze flitted over to Sadie and Christina. "Except for them. They dared to insult Terrakinetics, and they dared to insult my parents." She spat out the words venomously, and glared daggers at the two shaking girls.

Before anyone could stop her, Adria leaped down from the stage to the floor, stalked over to Christina and Sadie, and stomped her foot onto the ground.

Sadie yelped as a long, jagged, and wide crack split the marble floor she and Christina were standing on into half. Christina lost her balance as the half she was standing on protruded out upwards, making her fall onto the ground, whimpering in pain. Sadie managed to regain her balance, but she still looked shaken as she stared at Adria.

"I made a pact to protect those I loved," Adria uttered. "And I tried to love you two. But you two make it impossible to keep my promise."

Sophie gaped as Adria stalked away from the two shocked girls, and vanished. Her stare lowered to the crack on the ground, and each girl standing on each half of the broken marble floor. She was right—Adria wasn't a force to be reckoned with.

Master Leto cleared his throat, and Madlen looked uncomfortable as the mass of Black Swan members fell silent.

"Miss Elyon and Miss Glace, please make your way back to your seats. The floor will be repaired as soon as possible. Right now"—he bent down and retrieved one of the jewels from the ground and holding it up—"we are divided not by rank, not by anything. . .because we made the wise decision to be one united organization, and we hope to remain undivided for the rest of time. Even though Miss Adria is not here right now. . .please, everyone, give her a huge round of applause."

He dropped the gem onto the stage as the Black Swan members cheered and clapped. And even though Sophie couldn't see Adria, somehow she thought that she was hidden in one of the dark corners, vanished, and smiling happily but sadly.

* * *

When the excitement of the Black Swan meeting had vanished, and the evening had faded to night, Sophie snuggled into her bed in her dormitory, Iggy letting out one of his legendary Iggy farts, thankfully not very near her.

Biana slept on the other side of the dormitory, her steady breathing filling Sophie's ears. She must have fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. And even though the quilt of the bed wasn't as comfortable and silky smooth as her canopy bed back in Havenfield, it was still rather cozy to sleep in.

She couldn't blame Biana for falling asleep immediately—to say that Sophie was exhausted was a great understatement. And being under Elodie's Mesmer Bond must have taken its toll on her, and Sophie was sure she was under more stress.

So why wasn't she asleep? It was because her head was filled with worries about tomorrow. How would normal life in the Black Swan base continue? She hadn't had a day like that in a very long time. Would Jin still be her self-defense mentor? She hoped not. Even the scary Adria would have been a better choice. Or maybe Mira.

Then she mentally slapped herself when she realised she'd forgotten to talk to Dex. Her head was pounding and tired and her leg and hand muscles were strained, but she decided that she really couldn't wait for tomorrow. She couldn't be such a bad procrastinator.

Sophie sat up in her bed slowly, not wanting to wake Biana up, and swept Iggy off her shoulder, making him squeal, but Sophie put her finger to his little mouth, then leapt onto the ground softly, careful not to make any sound while she moved.

She slipped out of the dormitory door and tiptoed on the cold marble floor bare-footed, her muddled mind trying to remember the way to the boys' dormitory. After a while, she padded towards the right direction, and found herself standing in front of a plain mahogany door. But when her bare foot stepped on something squishy, she looked down and saw a doorstep in the shape of a gulon.

Sophie smiled. Keefe could be so childish sometimes. There was still a ray of light shining through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, so she reckoned the boys were still awake. She shook her head. She should have known they wouldn't have followed the curfew that Master Leto set for them.

Heart in her throat, Sophie knocked three times on the smooth wood.

"Oh, who's there?" Keefe's voice came through muffled. "Wait—I place my bets on the Mysterious Miss F."

Sophie smiled. He knew her so well. "Yes," she called, her heart feeling lighter.

"Come _on,"_ Dex groaned. Sophie ignored him. "Wait, what the _heck_ are you doing, Wonderboy?"

"Where's my shirt?!"

"It's over there in the corner of the bed, idiot!"

Sophie blushed at the thought of shirtless Fitz. "If you need more time. . ." she called.

"No, never mind." Fitz's voice sounded embarrassed as sounds of shuffling filled Sophie's ears.

"Wait, why did you remove my gulon doorstep?!" Keefe shrieked. "Because if Foster steps on it the second time, it would have squirted gulon gas into her face!"

"But she's not here for fun stuff, Keefe," Fitz pointed out. "It's obvious she's here for Dex."

Keefe muttered something about 'Deephie' before he called, "Okay, Foster, you can come in."

Wary, Sophie turned the doorknob and opened the door, stepping inside the boys' dormitory.

Her heart sank when she saw Dex's expression.

Dex scowled at her, and the look in his eyes was enough to cause Sophie to look away.

"I'm getting a lot of tense emotions here," said Keefe, swatting his hand at the air around him. "So. . .I'm guessing you two want to be alone. Then me and my boy can go and scare Biana!"

"Don't even think about it," Fitz told him, but after a moment, he said, grinning, "Never mind, scratch that—I still want to get back my sister for the countless times she tackled me to the ground."

"That's more like it, Fitzie boy," Keefe cackled, dragging Fitz out of the dormitory. "Come on, let's go!"

The door slammed behind them, and Sophie turned to Dex, who was still staring at her.

"So. . ." Sophie said, unsure of how to start.

"So. . ." replied Dex, his fierce façade suddenly crumbling into a nervous expression.

Seeing him giving in, Sophie pulled him into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry, Dex," she cried. "I didn't mean to—"

Dex tensed in her arms, but after a moment, he said grudgingly, "Never mind, after hearing that girl Adria talk. . .I realise. . .it wasn't your fault that Sora took the blow for you. You. . .you're their last hope. Their last and only hope. And you're my friend. I'm very sorry too."

"My best friend," Sophie corrected as she tightened the hug between them, a tear running down her right cheek. "And I forgive you, Dex."

The hug felt like coming home.

"Forever friends?" Sophie asked, her voice choking as they pulled away.

"Forever friends," Dex said after a short moment.

He started to lean in—

"Man, the level of friend-zone here is sure strong," Keefe said, as the door opened, Fitz and Biana close behind him.

Dex scowled as he whirled his head to look at them. "You—"

Sophie felt the heat creep up her cheeks when Fitz frowned and Biana smiled goofily.

"Oh, forget what I said," Keefe said, waving his hand. "But remember, little Dex, Foster's not free any day."

"Wait, what do _I_ have to do with this?" Sophie asked. "And why are you the one to decide if I have free time or not?"

Biana giggled. "Sophie. . .oh, Sophie," she said after a moment. "You have—"

"—_That's it_, I'm out," Dex announced, standing up.

Sophie pulled him down. "No. Stay."

Dex sighed. _"Fine."_ His eyes shifted to Sophie. "For _you._"

Sophie had no idea what to say to that, and she looked down at her hands shyly as Biana snickered and Fitz and Keefe frowned.

"Anyway, why are we past our curfew and here in the boys' dormitory?" she asked, changing the subject.

Keefe sighed, draping an arm around her shoulders. "Foster, _Foster._ Curfews can be skipped. Live a little. Now what can we do? Party?"

"You tell me," Sophie said, trying to shake off his arm. But he stayed there, and Sophie squirmed as she saw Biana's eyes flare with jealousy.

"We're so lucky we have one another," she whispered.

"Now who's getting sentimental here, Foster?" whined Keefe. But there was a tinge of sadness in his voice.

"The world could be crumbling down any second now." Two tears slipped down Sophie's face. "But whatever happens, we'll be there for each other."

Fitz was about to say something when Sophie fished into her tunic and pulled out the locket that Madlen had given her.

"It's a protection amulet," Sophie whispered. "And I don't want it. I wish I could give one to each of you, but. . ."

She sidled over to Keefe's back, and clasped the chain onto his neck, embracing him in a tight hug.

"Your mother. . ." She broke into a sob as her lips grazed his ear. "Just be strong, okay?"

Keefe's ice blue eyes filled with tears as he nodded, looking down onto the floor.

Next, she turned to Dex, pulling out a small grey soft toy from her pocket.

"And this is for you—meet Robotic Ron. I know it's a silly name, but I named it myself when I bought it in Atlantis. And this is now yours."

Dex received the gift with both hands, mumbling, "Thanks, Sophie."

Then she turned to Biana. "I know this may sound impossible, but I think you can have Iggy for the night. I know sometimes you can't sleep, so. . ."

Biana smiled gratefully.

Finally, she turned her attention to Fitz. The boy who had found her. Most of her crush on him was already gone, but he would still hold a special place in her heart, something so deep a silly teenage crush wouldn't replace ever.

She pulled a silver necklace with a pendant engraved with a word 'amour'. It was in English and Fitz could read it, but it was the French word for 'love', one that Fitz wouldn't ever understand.

And maybe, that was better.

"My mum gave me this pendant when I was eleven," she said, placing the pendant around his neck. "And now I'm passing this to you."

Fitz grasped the pendant, which was shining in the light. "Are you sure you don't want it?"

Sophie shook her head. "No possessions can replace the love for her."

She tried hard not to think about her human family. As much as she missed them, she needed to move on.

Tomorrow was an unidentified future, and their present was their future past. . .Sophie felt that she needed to make every moment with everyone she loved last.

* * *

**Question: Who do you think is the spy? Hint: It's definitely either Adria, Sadie, Sam, Christina, Iorgo, or Perona.**


	59. Chapter 61

**Hey guys, I promised you I'll update sooner-and I did! Five days-not bad. I'm back to my normal updating speed. This chapter wasn't pretty hard to write, because it was kind of a filler chapter, but it brings up important and suspicious points about Albie, Mira, Iorgo, Perona, Sam, Adria, Prentice, Wylie, and Sora. That's right, you saw those two Endals in the list-but sadly, they're not going to appear this chapter-it'll be the next chapter instead. I was planning to write both chapters into one, but I was scared that you guys would complain that it's too long. This chapter's already 5,818 words and if I wrote the next chapter with this it'll probably be 9,000 words. Or maybe even 10,000. And I didn't want to delay you guys from the update.**

**daringwolf2000: Sadie, hmm? *mysterious smile* Can't say if you're correct or not, but Sadie's not appearing in this chapter. Sam is replacing her place in this chapter. It's okay if you didn't review last chapter-I can't say that I'll die without one review. As long as one of you guys review, I'm happy that someone actually reads my story! (I bet half of the readers here don't read this because they die when they see the number of chapters :(() But it's okay, thanks for reviewing and hope you like this chapter! :)**

**Fangirl1: I know, I know, I got the feels when I wrote this chapter too! And have fun on your road trip-I'll miss you lots! (I'm already missing Kari2678 and ForeverFreeFall and pen. edge who used to review every chapter :'() And YES-I'm so glad you have no idea (sorry, sorry, I'm evil) who the spy is! Maybe when you read this chapter you'll have a better grasp!) And about Adria dying a noble death by taking the blow for Sophie...My lips, unfortunately, are zipped. Haha! ;)**

**A person: Lol, high-five, evil person! People are also leaning toward Adria as the spy, but as usual, I am not going to say anything until I reveal the truth in the next few chapters. And me, evil author, made Sophie (almost) do something this chapter that would probably humiliate her for the rest of her life...;) You know what I'm talking about, don't you? But fortunately, I'm nice enough to stop her from doing it. I'll probably do it without stopping her in the last chapters! Hope you like this chapter!**

**I'm actually quite enjoying my deadline typing. But I know I've gotta type faster-I'll type half the next chapter after my holiday. But if you know me, you know I procrastinate. A lot. I hope I can actually finish it. I'm wasting four days going overseas(which is, tomorrow)! Please please please cooperate and read and review to encourage me to finish this by 1st January, okay? :)))**

* * *

"Sophie? Sophie? Sophie!"

A loud, shrill, and piercing voice pulled Sophie out from her sleep.

Sophie groaned. "Shut _up_, Amy!" she yelled, turning around on her back. Her mind was so fuzzy, like cotton wool, and so was her body. . .couldn't a girl get enough sleep?

Giggles rang through the air. "Sophie, I'm not your sister! I'm Biana!"

At that, Sophie's eyes flew wide open, wincing when the light entered her eyes. Where was she? And why was she on a hard floor? But this wasn't her dormitory, she was sure. . .

"Oh my gosh," she said, sitting up instantly. "We fell asleep in the boys' room?"

Heat flushed her cheeks pink when Biana nodded her confirmation.

She turned her head sideways warily, and shrieked loudly when she saw Keefe sleeping peacefully on his bed, drooling.

"Huh?" Keefe mumbled in his sleep, turning to face the wall. Sophie let out a breath and backed into Biana.

"Okay," said Biana, standing up and pulling Sophie up with her. "Let them be late—they can miss breakfast—but I'm definitely _not_ missing breakfast."

"Good idea," agreed Sophie, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "How did we end up here anyway—?"

Her voice trailed off when a flood of memories came rushing back into her mind. They had a late night rendezvous last night, and Sophie had given each of her friends something in case something bad happened to her.

"When does the first period of training start?" she asked.

Biana groaned. "Don't ask me—I don't know. You should know—you're the one with the photographic memory."

Sophie grumbled at that. "Well, I don't know. I don't bother to remember. But I'm really hungry—let's just go and eat—"

"Eating breakfast without me, Foster?" Keefe's voice said, and Sophie and Biana yelped in terror, turning around to see Keefe, Dex, and Fitz already out of bed.

"Since when did you wake up?!" screeched Biana.

"Since forever," yawned Dex.

Fitz shrugged, rubbing his eyes. "Plus, I _really_ don't want to miss breakfast. Did you know that breakfast is the most important meal out of the three main meals? It—"

"Yes, I know," said Biana, scowling. "And here I am, thinking that Sophie was the one that said all this stuff."

Sophie's eyes trailed to Fitz's neck, where the pendant she had given him was.

Fitz caught her looking, and said, "I'll take care of it, I promise."

Sophie blushed, and Dex and Keefe started talking unusually loud while Biana just rolled her eyes.

"Come on," she said, stalking out of the room. "I believe we have somewhere we need to go."

The five filed out of the dormitory, and Keefe started talking avidly to Sophie.

"Don't you think it's much more fun with all five of us?" he asked. "We can have all the slumber parties, midnight feasts, and skip curfews every night!"

"Don't even _think _about it," scolded Sophie, horrified by his opinions. "I do need my sleep, you know."

"You forgot the beauty before sleep, Foster." Keefe smirked when Sophie flushed as red as a tomato.

Oh gosh, was he _flirting _with her? Not that she was surprised—he always did that. But she could feel his stare penetrating her, even when she looked away.

Biana cleared her throat, an obvious strain in her voice. "We're here." She pushed open the doors and they went into the dining hall. It seemed brighter than yesterday, and the tables seemed to be laden with much more food than usual. And everyone was talking happily while feasting on their meals. Nobody wore capes or the Black Swan patches. Instead, they wore whatever they liked.

"What a change," whispered Fitz, and Sophie agreed. The Black Swan members seemed nicer, and nobody stopped to stare. Some of them even greeted them with a 'Hello!' or 'How are you?' and a smile.

The stage was gone, and Sophie's eyes slid over to the floor that Adria had broken yesterday. It was as good as new, like the Black Swan base.

Sophie and her friends sat down at their long table. Soreas, Albie, and Mira greeted them with smiles and laughs.

"It's so different, but in a good way, isn't it?" Mira laughed. Sophie agreed heartily, and even Dex looked cheery today.

"But they put security around the place, especially at the chasm," Albie whispered. "Root Abyss was originally a sacred place, but when Miss Heks fell into the water, they decided not to ignore it anymore."

Sophie's blood turned to ice.

_Sora falling into the raging water. . ._

She shuddered and pushed the image out of her mind. Sora was fine now, and even though she was still unconscious, she was going to be alright. Hopefully.

"So what new food do we have?" Sophie asked, eyeing the breakfast in front of her hungrily.

"We have coriander stalk and gravy soup today," said Soreas, and beside him, Iorgo snorted.

"Ironic Iorgo, do you have something stuck in your throat?" asked Mira sweetly. "Oh wait, I forgot, you were always a pig. Sorry!"

Keefe cracked up, and the rest of the members at their table followed him too. Iorgo scowled, and Perona glared at them.

"Bullies," she muttered, jabbing her fork into a coriander stalk.

Albie rolled his eyes. "Would we be 'bullies' if you two weren't such jerks?"

They fell silent at that, and continued eating their food gloomily. Sophie remembered their negative attitudes yesterday, and frowned. They were really so bad sometimes. . .

After breakfast, all the Black Swan members filed out. But before Mira, Albie, and Soreas could walk past Sophie, she grabbed Albie's hand.

She didn't miss how Mira's shoulders tensed.

"I don't know what's my first period," she told them. "In fact, I don't know any of my training sessions."

"Let me check," said Soreas. "Hmm, yes, I remember. You have Telepathy first, then Polyglot lessons, next self-defense, and lastly stealth lessons."

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "That's new."

"Yup," Mira finally spoke up, waggling her eyebrows. "We gotta learn how to sneak up on people, you know. Even though elves can't attack too vulgarly if they don't want their sanity to shatter, we can still learn how to sneak up on people and you know, do stuff. So off you go. Better go with pretty boy, you're with him, aren't you?"

"Yeah," mumbled Sophie.

"Hmm," said Soreas, squeezing between Albie and Mira, then staring at Sophie, a smug smile plastered on his lips. "Interesting."

"What?" Sophie snapped, her cheeks heating up—although she knew exactly what Soreas was implying.

"Nothing," Mira said, grinning. Albie was also smirking like Soreas.

"Yeah, just hurry to your lessons, okay?" said Albie, conjuring an extra hand on Sophie's back and pushing her forward. Sophie yelped loudly and stumbled forward, cursing. She really had better find Fitz before she died of embarrassment.

"Wait," a voice stopped her before she could go any further.

Sophie turned around in great surprise, and found Iorgo standing right in front of her. What did he want?

"Yes?" she asked, hoping it wasn't going to end up badly or something.

Her hope wasn't heard, and Iorgo slammed her against a wall. Two elegant arms blocked her escape.

Perona.

"What do you want?" she asked, glad when her voice didn't tremble.

"You, Sophie Foster," Iorgo said. Sophie cursed when she tried to escape but to no avail. Perona had a strong vice-like grip that made it impossible to break free of her prison.

"Whaaat?" Sophie said, confused. "I really need to get to my Telepathy lesson—"

"Sophie!" A familiar voice interrupted her sentence. Sophie's shoulders relaxed when she saw it was Fitz. "Are you all right? Why are Iorgo and Perona—?"

"I don't know," said Sophie, trying to duck under to run away from the two of them, but Perona slammed her leg against her head, making her cry out in pain.

"Stop it, you two!" Fitz cried out, running forward, but Iorgo stopped him by grabbing his arm.

The air around them shifted, and Adria appeared. Her brown hair swished side to side as she glared daggers at Perona and Iorgo. "You two. Go. Now."

Perona sneered and met Adria's eyes, and the two of them had an intense staring match before Perona relented reluctantly, and sighed.

"Fine, we'll go," she mumbled, releasing Sophie, Iorgo doing the same with Fitz. "Let's go, Io."

Adria walked toward Sophie and Fitz. "Are you okay?" she asked them, helping them up.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Fitz said, wincing when he stretched his fingers on his left. "But I think he twisted them here."

"My shoulder," gritted Sophie through her teeth.

"You two are clearly in great pain," Adria said. "Let's get you to the medical centre. I'm sure Elwin can solve your problems—anyway, I was just heading there to visit Miss Heks."

"And check if she's really all right," she added.

She glared at Sophie when she said that, and Sophie bristled on the outside, though on the inside she felt a little afraid. To say that Adria was scary was an understatement. She knew that everybody blamed her for this, and she couldn't blame them for feeling that way too. It was her fault, technically, but she wouldn't shatter of guilt. She _wouldn't._

She would be strong, she thought as she touched her short hair. And she meant it.

"It's okay," Sophie said. "We can go after the day of training ends. We mustn't delay Ma—I mean, Sir Kerlof."

Adria narrowed her eyes. "So you know his true identity, huh? I didn't expect that of the Moonlark."

Sophie bristled again. "Call me Sophie, please."

"As you wish," she said, stalking away, _"Moonlark."_

Sophie sighed—Adria was impossible—and turned to Fitz. "Let's go."

They walked down the halls, and Sophie saw Dex rushing towards them. He seemed half a world away, his mind clearly somewhere else.

"Dex?" Sophie asked. Dex stopped in his tracks, and stared at Sophie and Fitz. "Where are you going?"

"Um, to my next lesson, of course, duh," mumbled Dex, twisting his Disneyland watch that she had given him ages ago nervously. "See you, Sophie. See you, Wonderboy."

Fitz turned and watched him shuffle along the corridor before quickening his pace sharply and running quickly in the other direction.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Ten lusters say he's off to see Sora. And wait till he meets Adria—she will be anything but happy, I promise you."

Fitz laughed, and they continued down the corridor, then turning right to reach the Telepathy Room. "Adria's a wild one, isn't she? With those fiery frost blue eyes. Ironic."

The tone in his voice made Sophie look up at him sharply. "Yeah. That's what they all say."

She got nothing from Fitz but a dreamy smile, and she tried to shake off the niggling thought as she opened the door to witness the beautiful Telepathy Room. After the Neverseen had broken in here, the Black Swan gnomes had repaired and renovated the room. The walls and ceiling gleaming with a sheen of enchanting teal, and a glimmering chandelier hung in the centre of the room. Three hot pink beanbags were resting in the center of the room, surrounding a short azalea purple round table. On one of the beanbags, sat Master Leto, looking very out of place with his beer belly and wrinkly skin.

"You kids," he grumbled. "Always late for class." He scratched his head. "Sometimes acting as a Mentor is really tiring."

"We had a run in," protested Sophie. "With Iorgo and Perona."

"Huh, those kids." Master Leto shook his head. "They're no good. But don't misunderstand them. They might seem rebellious on the outside, but actually they're very nice kids."

Sophie wasn't very sure about his last sentence, so she decided not to say anything as she settled down on the beanbag next to him, trying not to squirm as Fitz sat on the one directly in front of her.

"So what are we going to do today?" asked Fitz.

"The usual things we always do," he said. "But a tad bit different."

Sophie didn't like the way he said 'different'. The urge to squirm intensified as her heartbeat began to pick up steadily.

"Now, don't get too jittery, Miss Foster," Master Leto said. "I thought you would be better today because of last night's events. Even gave the protection amulet to Mr. Sencen, didn't you?"

Sophie and Fitz gaped. "How did you know?" they chorused in unison.

All Master Leto did was smile slightly and say, "We have our methods."

Sophie scowled as she said, "Can't we at least have a little privacy?"

"We would like to give you five some," Master Leto replied. "But skipping your curfew to meet together is likely to penetrate the barriers of giving you privacy. Like how we have always known you and Miss Vacker sneaked out of your dormitory to listen on us. Quite an experience, wasn't it?"

Sophie's jaw fell open. "You knew all along?"

Master Leto nodded. "Nothing escapes our attention. And I know you are very intrigued to find out what we meant. Well, I would tell you nothing except we have been planning a new operation for a long time: Project Neverblaze."

"Neverblaze? What is that?" Fitz asked.

"It's not anything. It's just a play on some words of our target," replied Master Leto.

"What, you want to extinguish the Everblaze once and for all?" asked Sophie.

"That is not our main objective."

"But it's one of them," Sophie pressed, not wanting to give up so easily.

"I would say so, yes."

"And are we part of Project Neverblaze?" Fitz jumped in.

"Yes, you are. Everyone is, thanks to Miss Adria."

"You never use Adria's last name," Sophie pointed out. "And we don't know it. What is it?"

A sigh racked Master Leto's body. "We cannot tell you. Miss Adria refuses to share her last name with other people. And we respect her privacy and we shall not dig any information out about her parents. Nobody trusted her at first. But now she has built her own place in here, so please stop asking prying questions about her or her background."

There was a tone of finality in his voice, and both Sophie and Fitz knew there would not be anymore valuable answers escaping from his mouth.

"Alright then," he said, "shall we start the lesson?"

* * *

"You want us to share every secret we have?" Fitz and Sophie asked together in disbelief.

Sophie shook at the mere thought. She liked to keep her own secrets to herself. Exposing every single secret she had would mean that Fitz could embarrass her fully in front of everyone.

But then, so could she. . .

She tried not to pick out a loose eyelash from her eyes as she said shakily, "No, I'm sorry. I—I can't do this." She glanced at Fitz. "No offense, though."

"No worries," Fitz whispered. "I don't think I can too."

That hit her a little hard, but it wasn't for nothing when Master Leto sighed. "Fine," he relented. "But you have to share three secrets today, and we'll do something else. Okay?"

"That sounds good," Sophie said, and Fitz agreed with her. She could handle three secrets.

But her gut still jumbled with nerves and her heart began to pound against her chest loudly in her ears as Master Leto told them that they could begin.

_Okay, I'm in, _Fitz said after a moment.

_I'm sorry for just now,_ Sophie apologised.

_Nah, it's okay. I was pretty terrified at the idea too. I mean, sharing all of our secrets with each other? There are still things we'd like to keep to ourselves, right?_

_Right, _Sophie agreed, relieved. _So who starts first? Should we play scissors, paper, stone like last time?_

_Sure, why not?_ Fitz asked. _Although I still don't really understand how paper can beat stone._

Sophie laughed at that. _Losers have to go first, okay?_

_Of course you'd win, _Fitz pouted. _You always do._

True to Fitz's word, Sophie won with paper, and Fitz lost with stone.

_Urgh, _Fitz sighed, settling in his beanbag. _I knew it—I shouldn't have tried in the first place. But fine. When I was young I would always call out my name, but I kept pronouncing it wrongly, and it came out as 'Pee'. Obviously, Alvar laughed at me, and did nothing else when I cried, but I'd always suspected that that was why his pet raptor peed on me._

_Did you ever tell Biana? _ Sophie asked, trying to contain her laughter and giggles inside her—but it was too late—a hysterical bubble of laughter pushed up her throat. She tried to cover it with a snort but that sounded even worse—and it was worse, especially when Fitz laughed too.

Her cheeks burned as Fitz said, _No—or else I would've died of embarrassment. But you look like what I think I would look like now. Don't worry—it's a cute snort._

Sophie's hand flew up to her mouth.

Did he just call her _cute?_

_Yeah, _Fitz said, reminding her he could hear her thoughts. _I hope it's okay._

Struggling to keep her thoughts under control, Sophie transmitted, _It's fine. I guess. . .I'm still not used to people praising me—especially when nobody did when I was in the Forbidden Cities. They all thought I was nothing but a useless freak._

Her heart wrenched when she thought the last two words.

_That bad, huh? _ Fitz asked, but he didn't sound too understanding. Sophie knew. He wouldn't ever understand. His world was a perfect play, the plot of his life unfolding like it always should have been.

Until she came.

_Don't feel guilty about that, _Fitz said. _It isn't your fault. I asked for it._

His voice was loyal and confident, but that didn't make Sophie change her mind one bit.

_Anyway, that's one secret I shared, _Fitz continued when Sophie didn't transmit anything to him. He must've heard what she'd thought, and decided not to press her on the subject anymore. _And I think you just shared one secret with me—so we both have two secrets left. Your turn._

She hesitated, then transmitted, _Sometimes I dream that I'm stuck in a cage of Everblaze, and Brant's the one who throws me in. And sometimes I dream that my home in San Diego catches fire, and I get out—but my family dies inside. _

Fitz stiffened. _Why didn't you tell anybody?_

Sophie rubbed her upper arms. _It didn't seem too important—and everyone else was focused on rescuing Prentice at that time—I didn't want to trouble them._

_Still, _Fitz insisted. _Even if they're nightmares, nightmares are still dreams, and dreams always mean something._

Fitz's words echoed again and again through her head, and she wondered about them.

Dreams always meant something.

But before she could think about that any more, Fitz said, _Alright, it's my turn again. This is more like a story, but nobody knew what was going on. When I was Level Three, I met this girl called Elisa. And . . . I thought she was cute. So we two started dating secretly—nobody knew, not even Biana, but she came close to finding out one time. We continued this way until Elisa and I fought. It . . . I don't know._

_Huh, _Sophie said, trying to stifle a surge of jealousy. _I thought you never wore the girls' crush cuffs they send you._

_She didn't. She didn't even send me something. She resented me at first, that was why people didn't suspect us. But I kind of had a crush on her, and you know I'm not that kind of guy. I guess I was just really naïve at that time._

Sophie couldn't help but laugh—though the second last sentence he said kept replaying over and over again. _I guess. That's your second secret. Now—for my third secret. Um . . . I really don't know. I—_

_Why not you just blurt out whatever you're embarrassed about and then we can get over it? _Fitz asked when she stopped. _I mean, it wouldn't change anything, would it._

It would—depending on how he felt.

_How I feel about what? _Fitz repeated, reminding Sophie yet again that he could hear her thoughts.

_Come on, _he begged as Sophie scrambled to get her thoughts under control. _Why not you just tell me on the count of three?_

_Here we go._

_One . . ._

_Two . . ._

Sophie closed her eyes. All she had to do was to trust Fitz with this secret. And hope that he wouldn't be too embarrassed like she was going to be in a few more seconds.

Master Leto called, "You two okay over there?" when Fitz transmitted _three._ Sophie jumped and felt Fitz retract away from her mind.

"Oh man, we were so close!" he cried. Master Leto rolled his eyes, and though he looked curious about what was going on, he didn't say anything.

"You're blocking me," Fitz said.

The hurt in his voice threw Sophie back a step. "Sorry . . ." But it felt good to have all of her thoughts inside of her again.

Had she really been considering telling Fitz that she _liked _him?

She shuddered, rubbing her arms. Fitz was right—they had been so close. What if Master Leto hadn't stopped them? What if she really did manage to tell Fitz what was going on? What would he say? What would he feel?

Master Leto took one glance at scared Sophie and hurt Fitz and said, "I think this lesson is over for now—you two go to your next lessons."

With that, he walked out of the Telepathy Room, leaving only Sophie and Fitz in the room—alone. The tension was so thick that Sophie could cut it fully with a knife. She bit her lip, looking down and feeling Fitz's stare on her.

_Sophie, _Fitz transmitted, forcing her to look up. _It's not your fault. I guess you aren't ready to share your secret yet._

Sophie looked away from his teal eyes to avoid her heart from fluttering. "It's okay. Bye, Fitz."

She managed a shy wave before she spun on her heel and bolted out of the door. As she turned sharply, she almost bumped into someone.

A boy with jet-black hair glared at her. He looked familiar. "Watch where you're going!"

His voice made Sophie realised this was Sam, Adria's best friend. She hadn't expected him to be so rude. But since Adria seemed to hate her, it was probably no surprise for him to do the same too. "Sorry," Sophie mumbled, and proceeded to walk past him. But a hand caught her wrist, and she looked behind to see Sam staring at her.

Seriously, what was with all those Black Swan members stopping her? First it was Iorgo and Perona, now it was Sam. What did they really want from her?

"Yes?" Sophie said, careful to keep her voice under control. "What do you want?"

"You're the moonlark, aren't you?" he asked.

Sophie bristled. "Obviously."

"Stay away from the Root Abyss," he warned, and released her hand. "It's dangerous out there."

"And why should I listen to you?" challenged Sophie, feeling braver than usual as she glared up at him.

Sam shrugged. "Unless you want to be in trouble, then fine. I won't stop you. But there are things lurking out there."

His eyes turned as dark as his tone of voice, and the hairs on Sophie's neck stood up—not only because of the danger Sam's warning posed—but also because of her instincts.

There was something off. And Sophie didn't know what it was.

* * *

"I've been thinking," said Madlen, sitting on a beanbag chair next to Soreas and her, "about Miss Foster's awful mimicking and how we can improve it."

Sophie scowled. "Need you remind me?" Sophie was a Polyglot, who knew all the languages and knew how to mimic, but unusually, she failed terribly at the latter and she had irked Master Cadence and Madlen countless times.

"Even Mr. Sencen, who isn't a Polyglot, can mimic tons better than you, Miss Foster," Madlen told her. "It should be time you learn how to evaluate and solve the problem."

Soreas snorted—like a pig. "Easier said than done."

Madlen shot him a sharp look. "What you presume is right, Mr. Heks, but I'd rather if you wouldn't discourage our young moonlark."

Soreas rolled his eyes this time. "Please—she's already discouraged enough. It wouldn't make any difference if I said anything to help or not."

Soreas was correct—Sophie didn't feel too encouraged right now—instead, she was thinking about what Sam had said to her. Why should she keep away from the Root Abyss? She'd went there a million times, and there was security there now, so what dangers could the chasm pose to them?

She decided to bring the matter up to Soreas later—when they didn't have Madlen and Mr. Forkle paying such insanely close attention.

Soreas poked her, pulling Sophie out of her reverie to let her realise that her Mentor was shooting death glares at her to remind her to pay attention.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked Madlen, trying not to squirm in her seat.

Madlen nodded toward Soreas. "Mr. Heks can be your guide for this. Just try mimicking my voice, for a start."

Sophie frowned. Her Black Swan Polyglot Mentor had an unusually low pitch—even for a man—and she was guessing that he used it to disguise his real voice.

Soreas set a small gadget on the table, and Sophie sighed, lowering her voice a few octaves and tried to mimic Madlen's voice. (The keyword is 'tried'.) Her voice came out all grumpy and scratchy, making both Soreas and Madlen groan loudly.

Soreas sighed, handing her a cup of plain water to quench her thirst and clear her throat. "Okay—say 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' along with Madlen, and try to adjust to his tone."

"That's a human phrase."

"One, two, three, go," Soreas said, ignoring Sophie. Madlen and Sophie chanted the mantra over and over again until Sophie managed to pitch her voice on the same level as Madlen's. Then after a few more chants, Madlen trailed off and let Sophie do it on her own. Sophie was surprised by the deep voice that came out of her mouth—it was exactly like Madlen's. She'd did it!

"Excellent job, Miss Foster," said Madlen. "I believe we have cracked your difficulty to mimic. Now, let us try . . ."

* * *

The next thirty minutes were the best minutes of her life—where everybody praised Sophie for getting over her difficulty. She also felt proud of herself and gave herself a little treat of pancakes to eat during lunch. Iorgo and Perona kept staring at her, but they didn't say anything. Mira kept chatting to Sophie about the change in the Black Swan—while helping herself to a glass of lushberry juice.

"They've never been so light on us before," she said. "My mentor, Mona, was surprisingly nice today. And we _never_ have lunch before. It was always breakfast and dinner. I'd always starved—and now I'm freed of the starvation. If this is new and improved life in the Black Swan, I really appreciate what Adria Lentz is doing. I'd always hated her before—"

"Wait," Sophie said, her mind reeling. "Adria's last name is Lentz?"

"Yep," Mira replied, slowly chewing on a small piece of watermelon. "It may seem weird, but that's Adria. She's weird. I guessed I accidentally slipped up her name. She's going to kill me."

Sophie frowned. Even if she didn't know Mira that well, she very well knew that there was no such thing as Mira making a slip-up. Maybe she was tired or something.

"But . . . that's a German name," Sophie said, and Mira rolled her eyes even more.

"For the last time, Sophie, we're not humans! We may have names or surnames that sound like they belong to a certain human culture—like Sorajin Heks—but we're not humans—we're the same race. We all may have blue eyes, but that doesn't mean we're Westerners. We're not divided by race or religion—we're just elves! Stop being racist for once."

"I wasn't being that," Sophie muttered, but her mind clicked in understanding about what Mira said. The elves didn't judge like the humans did. They judged by ability.

"Whatever," said Mira, clearly annoyed. Her arm stretched out to reach for another slice of fruit, and the fabrics covering her upper arm shifted up, revealing her lightning shaped scar.

Sophie caught it, and said sharply, "You still haven't told me what happened to you in the past. It must be pretty bad, but I want to know."

Mira stopped halfway, and retracted her arm back. Her eyes were steely as she said harshly, "You don't deserve to know, Sophie. You wouldn't understand anyway. Why would a girl that the Black Swan would do _anything_ to protect understand? Shut up."

Sophie was taken aback by her words, and when she saw Albie shaking his head at her, she decided not to pursue the truth—yet.

"Hey, Sophie," Dex said across from her. Sophie tensed, but relaxed when she found out he hadn't been listening to her and Mira's conversation. He'd been talking to Keefe. "Want to go and visit the medical centre with me after this? We have half an hour free period before we go to the next training lesson."

Sophie rolled her eyes despite herself. "What, to go and see Sora again?" It wasn't that she didn't care about Sora—she cared a whole lot. But Dex was going too far.

Dex's cheeks flushed pink, but he denied, "No—it's just that they'd moved Prentice to there this morning, and I was just wondering if you'd want to go and see him too. Never mind if you don't want to—"

"I'll go," said Sophie, her mind buzzing with excitement. She hadn't known where the Black Swan had been keeping Prentice all this time—and now that they had moved him to Elwin's side, she wanted to see him.

Her excitement was almost stamped out when Dex added, "Oh, and they brought Wylie over there too."

_Wylie._ Prentice's son. He probably hated her. What would he say when he saw her? Would he be like the last time, pushing all the blame over to her that his father ended up in this state?

She almost changed her mind about going, then caught her reflection on one of the empty silver plates on the dining table. Her short hair reminded her of her promise to be strong.

And so she would.

"Still, I'm going," she told Dex, her mind made up.

_And nothing's stopping me from seeing the man that tried so hard to protect me,_ she thought fiercely.

"Oh yeah, did you see Adria when you went there?" Sophie asked, and Dex nodded.

"Yep—she was there to see Sora—but she also went and gave orders to some extra unfamiliar guys there. She told Elwin and me that they were the paramedics."

"Okay . . ." Sophie said slowly. "Dex, what's after the self-defense and the stealth lessons we have together?"

Dex scrunched his eyebrows together, deep in thought. "I'm sure it was an hour of the Collective talking to us—oh, yeah, now I remember—they're going to elect a new member of the Collective to replace Estelle."

The news hit Sophie hard like a bullet train.

_Replace Estelle._

The empty position in the Collective was the only thing Estelle had left in the real world besides her mysterious note. And now they were destroying it too—destroying her.

"You look pale," Dex observed quietly. "Are you going to be okay—?"

Sophie cut off her train of thoughts to answer Dex's question. "Yeah," she said, but she didn't feel the slightest bit convinced as she tried to stop the memories of Estelle from flooding into her mind.

"And after the voting, there will be a ceremony or something like that," Dex continued. "And then, we have an hour of free period before we eat dinner. And you know the drill."

"Huh," Sophie said. "I wonder who's my new self-defense teacher. Jin's kicked out of the Black Swan. E—Estelle is d-dead. Who'll be interesting enough?"

"I don't know," Dex said. "Mine was Albie."

"That's so lucky," said Sophie, pouting. "As you can see, all my mentors are either very weird or very creepy."

"So Estelle was weird," Dex said flatly.

"Yep, she was," Sophie said, staring wistfully at blank space. "She was always staring at me and saying strange stuff that I didn't understand. Quite harsh sometimes. But when you get to know her, she's actually very nice."

Dex was silent.

She blinked her tears back as the Black Swan members filed out of the dining hall, signaling the end of lunch. Some stayed behind and chatted.

"Foster, you want to come with us?" Keefe asked. "Biana's got some prank she wants to share with me."

Sophie looked up. "No, thanks." She looked around, but there was no sign of Fitz. She made a mental note to talk to him—like how she had talked to Dex last night. And she really needed to go to Root Abyss and find out what exactly was going on.

"Come on," Dex told her. "Let's go visit Prentice and Sora."

_And Wylie, _she told herself, half-afraid.

* * *

**Question(not really a question): You are one of the people in the Black Swan and you're going to attend the Black Swan nomination of the new Collective member. Nominees include Ack (Adria), Albie, Mira, Iorgo, Perona, Sam, and a girl named Coreana(you can ignore her, she's going to appear next chapter). (All of them are Executives.) Who would you nominate? I know you probably won't nominate Iorgo or Perona but just consider every one of them. I have no idea too, so I'm seeking your opinions.  
**


	60. Chapter 62

**Word count: 7,843 words. Longest chapter I have ever written in my life. Even beats the one for the new story. But I'm not sure if I can finish this by New Years' Day. But I'll try. I love writing this story so much! XD**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**Fangirl1: So...Albie, one point. Hmm...I know who's the spy now, and I know who's the new Collective member now, so...I shall not say anything. My lips are zipped. ZIPPED! I shall not say if Adria's the spy or not. But we have two new suspects-we shall see! And about who will be the new member, it's not in this chapter. I planned to include into this chapter, but my mother gave me a time constrain. URGH! So I need to stop writing this chapter so it'll be next chapter. Sorry! Thank you for reviewing and hope you like this chapter!~(and the next. And the next. And the next. XD)**

**daringwolf2000: Sam, one point, Coreana, one point...Eh, thank you for voting, but I know who should be the one already. And I ALSO KNOW WHO'S THE SPY! YAY! Coreana is the awesomeness. Or maybe that's just me. I didn't quite like her when I wrote her too, so...I guess you'll just have to read and see! :D**

**Guest: That's one point for Adria, and one point for Mira. Thank you for voting, nena!(I didn't laugh, trust me) And THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hope you like this chapter and thank you! Again! :)**

**Nikky: Aww, thanks so much! ! ! :)**

**random: Well, about a backstory for Sam and Adria, I need to ask Peace88, since she's the one who suggested them in this book. I just fitted them into the plot and tweaked them a little. But I treat them the same as my other characters! And THANKS A TRILLION! :D Hope you like this chapter and glad I can inspire you or something! :)**

**Cow: Iorgo, one point. *grins* Thanks for voting! :)**

**A person: Adria, one point. Lol, I am typing as fast as I can! I started typing this yesterday when I got back from my holiday. So...no pressure there? XD But just kidding, you can tell me to update as much as you like! :P**

**So I got back from Hong Kong and it was SUPER COLD there. and SUPER DRY. When I was there, my face literally looked like it had been punched by someone. And everyday, I saw advertisements for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS and IP MAN 3. The people there speak Cantonese and I only can understand, like, less than one-twelfth of it. But it's better than Hokkien. I think. Or maybe it's the same. Lol! XD It was so awesome to come back to Singapore, where it's so warm and sunny and NOT COLD AND NOT DRY AT ALL! ! ! ! Humidity is what I need when I'm in winter-ish Hong Kong! **

* * *

"So what do you think really went on with Marella?" Dex questioned carefully as he walked side by side with Sophie, who had her head down and her eyes were focused on her boots.

It was such a random question, but it still hurt as panic rushed through Sophie, followed by sadness and grief. Sophie didn't show it to her friends, but she still felt sorry for Marella. She'd known she had wanted to join the Black Swan. But if Sophie was being honest, she knew that she wouldn't have thought of her. And maybe that was why Marella was being so spiteful. Though Sophie knew that wasn't the only reason—and it had nothing to do with her.

A long second passed before Sophie looked up and sighed. "I don't really know . . . but I have a theory."

It was Elodie. It always was, and had been, Elodie. But she didn't say that when Dex asked, "What's that?"

After a moment of silence, Dex said awkwardly, "I'm guessing you don't want to share."

It wasn't a question, and both of them knew it as they reached the medical centre doors.

Sophie stared at them, her fear intensifying sharply. Beyond this door was Prentice.

And Wylie.

She drew in a sharp breath, steeling her nerves as she tried to calm her beating heart down, and failed to do so terribly. Whatever was going to happen, she had almost zero doubt that it was going to be havoc. Wylie practically hated her.

Dex nudged Sophie when she didn't budge. "Are you alright?"

Sophie was pulled out of her reverie. She forced a quick smile. It was supposed to look reassuring, but by the look Dex was giving her, she knew it was nothing but reassuring.

"I'm okay," she told him, straightening up. "Okay, let's go." She took another deep breath and pushed the double doors open with both hands as she and Dex stepped inside to infinite possibilities.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting. But she was sure of one thing: she wasn't expecting so many people inside. The atmosphere seemed weirdly different from usual—it was tense, which was inevitable, but it was completely silent, like the people here were dead. And they seemed to be staring at something on the wall next to Sophie. Somewhere she could feel Wylie's stare penetrating her back, but she ignored it as she turned around and saw what they had been looking at.

Her chest tightened and her hands dropped limply to her sides when she saw a humongous landscape, painted vividly onto a blank canvas that was framed and hung up on the dull grey walls, making it stand out. Sophie had never seen that Wanderling tree before, but as her eyes scanned the drooping willow tree which elegant branches spread out to bear sea blue sakura blossoms and leaves the colour of platinum, her mind clicked into recognition, a painfully all-too-familiar face washing into her head.

"That's . . ." she managed as her knees buckled, banging into each other.

"Sophie!" Dex hissed worriedly, catching her and steadying her before she could collapse. Sophie's brown eyes filled with hot, fresh tears as she realised what she was looking at.

Estelle's Wanderling.

"Sophie, are you alright?" a voice floated into Sophie's ears, and she struggled in Dex's arms, trying to stand up straight again. Whispers filled the air, but she didn't heed Adria's advice this time, but tried to stand once again and failed to do so.

Sophie's vision blurred once again, her eyes brimming up with tears, making the Wanderling become nothing but a smudge of colours. But the colours were Estelle's, and that just made it worse as memories and images of Estelle flashed through her mind. She didn't listen to the whispers, but she didn't need to do so as she already knew the truth. She was the cause of Estelle's death. And she knew it herself. And she didn't try to deny it. Because it was completely true. She had become angry when the Black Swan was just trying to help. She had been too blind at that time.

And now it was too late.

But as her hands shot up to her head, she remembered all the hard experiences she went through in order to try so hard not to succumb to guilt or negative emotions, and be stronger and more confident than she really felt. How Sora had encouraged her to take one more step into the new her and understand herself and others around her too. How Elwin had supported her decision to cut her hair short and serve as a reminder that everyone was counting on her. Even though she had already wronged so many rights, she had also righted a lot of wrongs.

And she was willing to do more of the latter.

Her vision cleared and her mind stopped buzzing as she finally managed to stand up straight, dry her tears, and bow her head at Estelle's Wanderling, the only fragment that reminded Sophie that Estelle was still in this world, right beside her, guiding her toward the right direction.

Sophie's hands clasped together and stared up at the willow tree. Somehow, she could feel Estelle's warm voice breezing through her mind as she looked at her Wanderling. The penetrating stares boring into her back became unnoticeable as Estelle's voice was the only thing she was focusing on.

Sophie strained to make out the words that had been slurred together so much that they were almost incoherent.

_Sophie, don't blame yourself for my death. I knew it was going to happen, sooner or later. Remember that time when you saved me from giving in to the bullet that had been shot into my shoulder? You saved my life back then. I was just giving back the favour._

_What?_ Sophie asked in disbelief. She wasn't transmitting, but somehow she knew Estelle could still hear her as she said, _Can you tell me what's going on? Someone told me to stay away from the Root Abyss, but there's nothing but guards and water. And what's Project Neverblaze about?_

_Ah, so you know about that. Well, the thing is, only I know the key to the answer to sneak into the other base undetected. It's hidden in the scrolls. And I was planning to hold a meeting before I died, but I guess you beat me to it._

Sophie's throat went sickly dry, and she continued, _I'm sorry—_

_No, don't apologise for everything that you've done. I don't blame you, but I know the others do—especially Miss Lentz. She used to worship me. But rest assured, Sophie. There's no need to worry about the project. Soon enough, if you have patience to wait—which I doubt you don't—all will be revealed to you._

_Thank you, _Sophie said, but she knew that Estelle was long gone as the black silence stretched out in her mind. She pulled herself back into reality, and noticed everyone staring at her. And that was when she realised that she was the only one left standing and looking at the portrait. All the others had either filed out of the medical centre, or stayed behind to look at Prentice or Sora. And one of those was Wylie.

Sophie could feel everyone's eyes on her, except for Elwin, who was busy concocting a new medicine, as she walked toward Prentice's bed. Sophie's eyes never strayed from his limp body. His jet-black hair was mussed up, and his blue eyes stared into blank space. They seemed to sparkle unusually—it was like he had flecks of white light inside of his irises. His pale dry lips were curled up slightly into a smile that creeped Sophie out.

Halfway she stopped and hesitated, her eyes glancing at Wylie, who was still staring at her. Not glaring, but staring. Maybe that was a good sign. Or not. Sophie's eyes continued to scan the whole crowd of people watching her. Dex. Adria. Iorgo. Perona. Sam. Three boys that Sophie had never seen before. And finally, a girl with sea green eyes that were so green that Sophie almost thought she wasn't an elf. But they still held a tinge of blue inside of them, and her new york pink lips were pressed into a thin straight line. Her ash blonde hair fell in slight waves down to her upper waist. She looked delicate, elfish-like, and slender as she tilted her head toward Sophie, her green-blue eyes telling her not to intrude.

Sophie frowned. Who was this girl?

The girl stepped forward, her light grey shawl shifting slightly as she walked over to Sophie, leaned closer and whispered, "Tense here, isn't it?"

Sophie frowned even more. "Um. Yeah." Why was everyone staring at this girl like she was a goddess? Except for Dex, the others were just focused on this girl, awe and tension reflected in their eyes. Even Adria seemed stunned by her, and Iorgo and Perona were the same.

The girl flipped her hair over her shoulder—though not arrogantly, stretched out a hand and introduced herself, "I'm honoured to finally meet the famous Sophie Foster herself when my fellow ex-Executives have already did so long time ago. The name's Coreana. Coreana Glace. Christina's sister."

Sophie stiffened as her eyes travelled from Coreana's outstretched hand to her face, which held nothing but beauty, sincerity, and pureness, and could tell that Coreana was true.

So she relaxed, shook her hand, which was soft and warm, then dropped it.

"You don't look like Christina," Sophie said, and it was true. Coreana had blonde hair, whereas Christina had black hair. Coreana's eyes were blue-green, whereas Christina's were sea blue. Coreana had sharp and slender features, while Christina was shorter and slightly plumper. The only resemblances between the two of them were the almond-shaped eyes and the same sharp long nose.

Coreana flashed a charming smile. "I get that a lot. But I am her sister, all the same." Then her smile dropped and her voice turned into a whisper as she said, "You shouldn't bother Prentice and his son. They're going through a hard time together. So I suggest you shift your time toward Miss Heks instead. Or talk to Adria or Albie."

Sophie didn't miss that she left out Mira's name. But she didn't say anything about that as she asked, "Who are those people?" She pointed toward three grown-up elves gathered around Prentice's bed. They were wearing white doctor cloaks and they seemed to be discussing about something.

Coreana's eyes flitted over to them. "Oh, they? Adria brought them in. They're the paramedics to assist Elwin—though they've done nothing so far than talk." She shook her head. "Adria's my best friend, but I don't see what's the point." Then she laughed. "Elwin's the best."

Sophie agreed heartily, and Coreana asked her, "Want to go see Adria? Let's lighten her up a bit—she's a little stressed."

"Um . . ." Sophie knew that she wouldn't be much help.

Coreana seemed to catch her train of thoughts, and reassured her, "Adria might hate you, but she'll be happy to see you nonetheless."

Somehow, Sophie doubted that. But she didn't protest as Coreana took her hand and led her toward Sora's bed, where Adria was holding the other Terrakinetic's hand and murmuring something. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful but stressed at the same time. Sophie didn't know that was possible.

"Hi, Dria," greeted Coreana as she sat down beside the girl. "How's it going?"

Adria looked up. "Miss Heks's healing fast. In no time, she'd be able to stand. She was conscious a few hours ago, but now she's resting."

Sophie exhaled a breath. Good news on Sora's side. But what about Prentice?

Coreana asked the same question Sophie had been thinking inside her mind, "What about Prentice?"

Adria sighed. "No progress. We were about to try to make Wylie go over to Prentice, but those paramedics aren't done yet. They say he's not ready. It's been the sixth hour already and nothing came out of their 'work'. It's more like never ready. I know it was my idea to bring more people to help Elwin, but I didn't ask for those worthless 'physicians'. Perona's got bad taste." She shook her head in disgust. "Does she even know how to differentiate between good doctors and bad doctors?"

"Hey, don't scold her," Coreana chided Adria. "Perona might be a little rude, but everyone makes mistakes, don't they?"

"Well, I can't say this is the best mistake to make." Adria chipped off a piece of her fingernail. "Maybe we should replace them."

"Give them a chance," soothed Coreana. "Everyone needs a second chance."

Adria scowled. "Oh, Coreana, you're ever the soft leader. You're great, no, really, you _are_ great, but sometimes you just have to let it go. I've never seen those blokes before, anyway. Where are they from?"

"Juniors," a voice said behind them, and they turned to see Perona, her arms crossed.

"What, Perry Careless?" Adria said in a monotone voice, and Sophie could practically see Perona twitch.

Surprisingly, Perona didn't snap back as she licked her lips. "They're Juniors. Give them a chance."

Before Adria could reply, Coreana cut in. "We agreed not to separate by rank."

"I thought all the members were children," Sophie said, and Adria seemed to notice her for the first time.

"Children?" Adria scoffed. "Oh, no. Some of us are adults too. What are you even doing here, moonlark?"

"Sophie," Sophie corrected. "And I came here to see Sora and Prentice."

Perona walked away without another word at the Sophie's voice. Coreana seemed distracted as she said, "It's really crowded in here, though. And it's not helping. I do have a speech to make after this, you know."

"So do I," Adria butted in. "Just bear it, Corey. Prentice and Miss Heks are both very important members in our organization. We have to do it for them."

Coreana's gaze flitted toward the painting of Estelle's Wanderling. "And Lady Lundian."

Adria's voice went quiet as she whispered, "Yeah, and her."

Sophie could feel the silence and sadness creep into her heart by each passing second, and it grew strangely uncomfortable. She was sandwiched between Adria and Coreana, and it was too awkward to look at either both of them, so she directed her gaze toward the next nearest thing instead—Sora.

Her face was still pale, but Sophie could see that her cheeks had been slightly flushed with baby pink, and her lips were plastered in a peaceful smile, unlike the creepy one that Prentice had. Her auburn hair tumbled down in waves. But Sophie could see a thick white ugly bandaged wrapped around her waist, making her look weaker and frailer.

Sophie's hand reached out to graze Sora's cheek. It was cold.

_Get well soon, _she transmitted to Sora. She wasn't sure if Sora could hear her. But she was satisfied to settle with 'even if she doesn't know, I'll be always here for her'.

Sophie looked away, tears in her eyes when the sound of lilting music filled the air.

"Time for stealth lessons," said Coreana, a rather weary sigh escaping from her lips. "We should go." There was a note of resignation in her voice. Sophie imagined how stressful it was to be Adria's friend. Or tend to the patients and sort things out every day.

After the two of them had went out with the other members of the Collective, there was only Elwin, Wylie, and Dex with Sophie in the room other than the two patients.

Elwin looked up and smiled. "Need any help?"

Sophie said, "No thanks." Dex walked over to Sora, and Sophie hesitated when she saw Wylie at his dad's bed. His face was contorted into a tormented expression and he was crying softly. Even standing at such a distance from him, Sophie could still feel the grief and sadness radiating off him.

Sophie steeled herself and walked toward him. Wylie turned when she cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

To her utmost surprise, Wylie shook her head. "No, I should be the one saying sorry."

"What?" the word escaped from her lips, stunned. Wylie wasn't angry at her? He'd always been . . .

"You saved my dad," Wylie whispered. "At first I thought you couldn't because at that time you seemed so . . . broken. And fragile. And you couldn't save Alden. But when you healed him, I had a spark of hope inside my heart. I know I've been such a horrible person to you, and now that you'd proved that you could save him. And you did. So . . . sorry."

It was just one word of apology, but Sophie could feel that he really meant it.

"You don't care if he's still unconscious?" she asked.

"But at least you'd done something to help him." Wylie's smile was sad, but it was a smile nonetheless. Sophie had never seen him smile before. "And I won't lose hope if you won't."

Sophie looked him in the eyes. "I _won't."_

And she meant it.

* * *

"Wait, so Mr. Grumpypants was there, and he _wasn't_ angry at you?" Keefe asked as the five of them gathered in the round domed training room that held the self-defense, and surprisingly, stealth lessons. And they had been told to gather here together with the ex-Executive Committee—because they weren't Executives anymore—they were equal. "That's a _big_ improvement. Like seriously big."

Sophie nodded. "Sure was one. He told me that he won't lose hope if I wouldn't. And I promised that I wouldn't. And I really won't."

She was relieved that Wylie wasn't mad at her anymore. It had been so hurting when Wylie was cold toward her, even telling her she was useless. But she understood why he had been acting that way, and she was willing to forgive him. And so she did.

Fitz smiled. "I'm glad."

"The paramedics were actually doing absolutely nothing," Dex added, crossing his arms against his chest. "They were just talking about something like Prentice waking up or not."

"Oh, _them."_ Sophie scrunched up her nose. "Adria was losing all of her faith in them. And she went so far as insult Perona for having bad taste, since Perona was the one who chose them."

She didn't like Perona, but Sophie felt sorry for her. Adria was one scary person if she wanted to be. And surely it wasn't Perona's fault for choosing the wrong people to help Elwin.

"Perona?" Biana frowned. "The one with dark amber hair and the snobby face? The one that always hangs out with the ironic Iorgo?"

"Yep, that's Iorgo and Perona for you," a voice behind them said. Sophie turned as Albie sat down beside them.

"Where's Mira?" she asked, hoping the Forecaster wasn't still mad at her.

"Talking to Coreana about the elections later," he replied. "It's a big deal, you know."

"Wait, the elections for the new Collective member?" Keefe asked.

Albie nodded. "I can't remember how many nominees are there, but I'm one of them. There's me, Mira, Iorgo, Perona, Coreana, Adria, and Sam. Four girls and three boys, if I recall correctly—"

"Hey, why are there more girls than boys?" Keefe complained. "Boys are meant to be the Kings Of The Universe!"

Biana rolled her eyes. _"Really?_ Because girls can rule too, little boy. So who do you think will win? Or who will you vote for?"

Fitz stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Guess I'll vote Adria."

Sophie glanced at him sharply. He had the same dreamy look in his teal eyes again.

Dex shrugged, and said, "I'll vote whoever deems fit most. But probably you, Albie."

Albie flushed. "Thanks."

Biana said, "Mira for the win!" Albie smiled and said that Mira would be happy to hear that Biana would vote for her.

All eyes turned to Sophie, and she became uncomfortable. Her mind scoured through the seven elves that she had to pick one from.

"I . . . guess I'll vote Perona. Or maybe Iorgo . . ."

All her friends gaped at her in shock and Keefe was the first one to recover.

"Seriously, Foster? Them? Are you thinking straight?" His face was a look of disbelief, mirrored by the others.

Albie shook his head. "They've been nothing but rude to us."

Biana nodded her agreement with Albie. "And that's not even the exaggerated truth. Sophie, are you sure?"

Fitz and Dex just looked stunned.

Sophie twisted her fingers together then untwined them again. "I don't really know . . . I feel kind of sorry for them. Master Leto says they're actually really nice kids, and Coreana pities them too. I feel like we should give them a second chance."

"Well, I'm not voting for them ever," mumbled Dex, and the others nodded their agreement.

Sophie sighed, running her fingers through her blonde hair, which had a few tangles in it. After she smoothed them out, she stared into blank space and wondered if voting for either Iorgo or Perona was the right decision to make. After all, everyone disapproved of them. Maybe not everybody, but Sophie knew there were quite a few that didn't like the two of them.

"Hey," another voice behind them said, and the six of them stood up to see Coreana, Adria, and Mira standing in front of them.

"Hey," Albie said, walking to Mira. "How is it?"

Mira's eyes shifted from side to side. "We didn't uncover anything."

Sophie frowned. There was something off from the conversation. And Coreana seemed to notice Sophie's suspicion, because she suddenly dragged Sophie's arm toward her. A cheeky smile played on her lips as she asked, "Ready for self-defense plus stealth lessons?"

"We're having them together?" Sophie asked.

Coreana nodded. "Yep, it's the first time that this ever happened. And I'm so happy." She smiled at Adria, who was bored by Fitz talking to her. "That guy's persistent, isn't he?"

Sophie followed her gaze and her chest tightened. "Huh?" she managed to get out, and Coreana's smirk grew wider.

"Never mind," she said, making a circle around Sophie. Sophie tried not to squirm as Coreana scrutinized her 360 degrees. She smiled and glanced at Mira. "You had a fight with Mira?"

Sophie gaped. "How did you know?"

Coreana waved her hand, and suddenly Sophie could see weird little white particles that looked like frost floating in the air. Most of them were bunched at the space between Sophie and Mira.

"Frosters can tell," she whispered. "Ever heard of the phrase 'break the ice'? There is a lot of 'ice' between you two. And I don't wish for you to be uncomfortable around her."

She pressed her index fingers together, and the ice particles around her and Mira floated toward Coreana. They vanished into her fingers, and after a few seconds, Sophie couldn't see any frost anymore.

Suddenly, Mira turned and seemed to notice Sophie for the first time. "Oh, hi," she said cheerily, waving her hand. "Sorry I was a little rude to you during lunch. But we can make up, can't we?"

Sophie was stunned. It was like Mira knew her all her life and she knew Mira all her life too. There was no tension between the two of them, and she felt comfortable as she smiled a genuine smile and said, "Sure, why not?"

Mira smiled and turned back to Albie.

Coreana walked over to Sophie's side and said, "See? Frosters can solve any grudge between anyone. We don't only control the ice particles in the air and make something freeze or fill with frost. Other people think our ability's useless, but actually it's quite useful when it comes to relationships. But obviously . . ."

She drew her finger across her and Sophie, and though Sophie couldn't see anything, she suddenly felt a wave of suspicion and tension when she looked at Coreana.

She stepped away immediately, and Coreana chuckled, snapping her fingers, then suddenly Sophie wasn't at all uncomfortable around her anymore.

"What just . . ." she trailed off.

"We can create tension around people too, if you like." Coreana laughed. "But I do not wish to do that. I only use this 'breaking the ice' ability when needed. The then relationship between you and Mira was bad, and I knew it would get worse over time—so I decided to solve it."

"But it isn't natural, is it?" asked Sophie.

Coreana frowned. "Of course it's natural. 'Breaking the ice' isn't about solving relationships—it's about clearing the tension between you two. When there's no tension, you two will make up on your own."

"I guess," Sophie said, her mind reeling from the infinite possibilities Coreana could create. Then she asked, "If you could clear 'ice' between two or among more, could you clear the ice in someone's heart?"

She thought if maybe it could be accomplished, the world could become a better place.

But her hope was squashed entirely when Coreana pursed her lips and shook her head. "Now _that's_ not natural at all. Your own will must do that yourself. There's nothing I could do about that, or any other Froster."

That made sense though.

But Sophie had another idea as she whispered it into Coreana's ear and explained why she wanted to do it.

Coreana frowned, then her face broke into a smile. "Consider it done by the end of lessons. Now, you have to listen to us." She looked around, where all the ex-Collective members had gathered and were looking around. She clapped her hands and Sophie bounded back to her friends. "Alright, everybody, gather around!"

Sophie shuffled along with Keefe, who poked her in her side and teased her about moving too slow. Sophie scowled and pushed Keefe back playfully. She yelped when Keefe chased her to where Iorgo and Perona were sitting on the floor.

"No!" she yelled as she plunged headfirst into Iorgo.

Iorgo scowled, but didn't say anything. Afterwards, the scowl suddenly vanished and was replaced with a warm smile. Sophie blinked. She knew it was going to happen, but it looked so wrong on Iorgo. But maybe this was his true self.

"Hey," he said. "Want to join us here?"

Perona turned around and gave her a wink.

Sophie tried to keep her laugh in. "Sure," she said, while her friends stared at her like she had gone insane.

While she talked to Iorgo about the elections, she turned around and caught Coreana's wink on the other side of the room.

Sophie winked back, and continued talking to Iorgo.

"What's your ability?" she asked him, and Iorgo shrugged.

"Nothing special, I'm just an Empath." He eyed Keefe, who was sitting next to Sophie, glaring at him. "Mind to ask why a fellow Empath is giving me a death stare?"

"Never mind him." Sophie laughed when Keefe gaped and mimicked a mock hurt expression.

"Foster . . ." He pouted, and she slapped him playfully.

"Just listen to Coreana."

Coreana stood up and said, "We're here together tonight for a special training class. We have the usual self-defense class and another new program, stealth. The objective is to learn how to sneak up perfectly on people or remain stealthy and silent as you break into the—" She stopped herself, a half-fearful look on her face.

"The what?" Sophie asked.

Coreana glanced at Adria, and the two seemed to exchange a conversation of looks, before the Froster sent a relieved and grateful look to the Terrakinetic.

"Whatever missions you have been assigned, there are always places for you to break into," Coreana replied after a moment. "And that's exactly what we need to avoid being noticed by the owner or owners of the places you're going to break into. Stealth. Although all of us already know how to vanish, it's not enough. Although you can use an obscurer, it's not enough. What if the guard guarding the place knows how to see through, sense, hear, or smell you? Or what if you drop your obscurer and you reveal yourself? That's why you must learn how to reveal as little of you as possible, and learn to use your abilities to the maximum to help you too. And to learn how to do that, the Collective has been very kind to prepare an activity on just exactly that."

Adria jumped in and said, "It's going to be very fun. First, you need to pair up and line up at the doors that lead outside. You can break into anywhere you want in the base, but you have to do it without the guards noticing you. And if they do notice you, try to tackle them to the ground or something. Your main objective is just to break into the room and cause as little fuss as possible. You can break into anywhere—the Telepathy Room, the Guster Training Room, even one of the Collective members' offices." A gasp rang out through the air, and a smirk played on Adria's lips. "Yep, we're allowed to do that too. Anywhere is accessible, except Root Abyss. You are _not_ permitted to enter the chasm at all costs. You got that?"

Sophie found it very suspicious, but she nodded along with the rest of the Black Swan members. She knew she couldn't break into the Root Abyss with so many guards surrounding the borders. But maybe she could find another valuable clue, she thought as her mind flash-backed to her conversation with dead-Estelle back in the medical centre.

"Great." Coreana's lips curled up into a smile as she said, "Go get your partners then."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Keefe asked Sophie as they lined up with the other pairs. Biana and Dex had wanted Sophie, but then Soreas asked Biana to be his partner, and she agreed with surprisingly little reluctance. Sophie had initially thought of Fitz, because then they could have secret telepathic conversations and the guards couldn't hear them, but he left and paired up with Adria, much to Adria's annoyance, as she had wanted to be Coreana's partner. But Coreana didn't complain, and left with a smile to pair up with Dex, who looked super uncomfortable with her.

"I don't know." Sophie snapped her fingers. "I know there's something up with Root Abyss, but we couldn't go there—"

"—You're forgetting who I am," Keefe butted in, a confident smirk plastered on his lips, but Sophie shook her head.

"Keefe, this isn't breaking into Dame Alina's office." Sophie's hands shook as she leant in and whispered into his ear, "But I know of a better place."

She whispered into Keefe's ear about the place she wanted to break into.

Keefe rubbed his hands and whispered back, his lips slightly grazing her ear as he said, "Meddling with the dead's possessions? I'm in."

Sophie smiled, and he smiled back. Maybe this wasn't a good or perfect place to break into, but Sophie thought it would be worth it to seize the chance and get more answers.

Coreana rang a bell, and the members ran out of the training room. Suddenly, Dex ran to Sophie and Keefe's side.

"Where's your pretty partner?" Keefe asked, clearly annoyed. "What, did you leave her all alone?"

Dex scowled. "No, I didn't. She was the one who _left me all alone._ I was walking toward the exit, then after a moment, I glanced at my side where she was supposed to be. There was nothing! I even looked around the whole place, but she was nowhere to be found. Seriously, if she didn't want me as her partner, why did she even pair up with me?"

After a moment, Fitz and Biana came up running to their side too.

"And where are _your_ partners?" complained Keefe.

"Don't tell me they left you alone too," Dex muttered.

Fitz and Biana nodded, and Sophie gasped. She looked around the empty training room. Soreas, Adria, and Coreana were nowhere to be found. Then her eyes caught the double doors at the far end of the domed room that led to Root Abyss. Two Black Swan members stood there, guarding the doors. Sophie's blood turned to ice as the realisation dawned on her.

They were there. They were in Root Abyss.

"They're in Root Abyss," Sophie hissed. "I just know it."

"But we can't follow them, can we?" Keefe shot back. "We still have Estelle's office to break in!"

"You—you're planning to go to . . .?" Biana trailed off, and Dex and Fitz looked as stunned as her. "But isn't that a little . . .?"

"They didn't say that her office was off-limits," Sophie whispered. "And I've done this a million times in Jolie's room. Furthermore, it's clear we can't go and follow Soreas, Coreana, and Adria. There's only one place to go, and I think we'll find something there."

She told the five of them the conversation between her and Estelle in the medical centre, and how she had told Sophie the answer was hidden in the scrolls.

"Are you sure there aren't libraries in the Black Swan base?" Fitz asked. "Because—"

Sophie shook her head. "She wouldn't hide something so personal and secret in somewhere so public like a library. I think the only place she'll hide secret scrolls is her office."

"So what's our plan?" Keefe asked. "I mean, no offense, but you guys have no experience in just randomly breaking into somewhere with security. We need a plan."

"Exactly," whispered Sophie, and leaned closer. "So here's our plan . . ."

Biana blinked in and out as she said, "I'm ready. So I'm going to make you all invisible . . . but didn't Coreana say that that's useless?"

"And that's why we need a distraction," Sophie murmured as she held out one of Dex's tech-nets that he had used to rescue them from the Neverseen base. "Coreana said it was best to use stealth, but she didn't say it was necessary to do so. And what more like an exploding effluxer would distract them and buy us the time that we need? After that, me, Keefe, and Biana will slip into Estelle's office undetected. Fitz and Dex shall stay outside and let themselves be discovered by the guards, so the guards will think that that's the all-clear, and nobody else is sneaking around. And let's just hope wherever the guards will take Fitz and Dex will be the Root Abyss, because that's where Coreana and Adria, the leaders, currently are. And if they don't, um . . . just fib a little and talk your way to the chasm, and also try to use the wrist-watch thing that Biana has, okay—"

"I don't believe those two could do it," Keefe butted in. "Let me and Dexie-boy do it. Fitz is useless when it comes to this things."

"Hey!" Fitz said indignantly, but he didn't argue.

Sophie let out a sigh. "Fine. Me, Fitz, and Biana will go inside and search for the scrolls. I don't know if we can find them, but that's why Dex and Keefe must do their job perfectly or else we won't have time."

"And then what will happen when me and Keefe (hopefully) get dragged to the Root Abyss?" Dex asked.

Sophie pointed to her eyes. "Observe."

Biana clapped her hands, unclasped the cuff from her hand and tossed it to Keefe. "Alright, shall we get started?"

* * *

"I'm not too sure about this," mumbled Dex as they tip-toed silently down the hall, hand in hand and invisible. Keefe shushed him as they turned a corner and arrived in front of Estelle's office. It looked dull and grey, and there seemed to be a fog of grief, sadness, and drab. Sophie felt moody and sad, but she squashed those emotions down in case that one of the two Black Swan members was an Empath. Maybe they could sense her emotions if she was too close.

Sophie transmitted to the four of them, _Now._

The guards suddenly moved forward and stumbled, and Dex and Fitz appeared. One of the Black Swan members started shouting, and the two of them instantly tackled Dex and Fitz to the ground. Through the growing chaos, the effluxer slid across next to the guards. One of the guards yelped, stepped on it, and the effluxer exploded, reeking of a stinky smell that smelled distinctly like ogres.

Sophie plugged her nose as she pulled Biana and Fitz's hands and pushed open Estelle's office doors silently while the guards were still coughing loudly. She closed the doors behind them, and locked them, letting out a sigh of relief.

"I can't believe we did that," Biana whispered, appearing again. After making Sophie and Keefe reappear, she snapped her fingers and the light came on. "Okay, let's start searching."

Estelle's office was nostalgic, Sophie thought gloomily. She had only been here once, and was captivated by it. Everything looked like Estelle.

There was a study table pushed against one of the yellow green walls and floating orbs of different colours of light surrounded the other end of the room—typical for a Flasher's room.

She stepped forward to the bookshelves, which had dozens of tightly tied-up scrolls squeezed inside, with a few books crammed in between. She sighed. How were they going to find the correct scrolls?

"This is impossible," she muttered. "There _has_ to be a clue somewhere that will tell us which ones are the right ones."

Biana plopped down on a cushioned couch. "She probably won't put them in the same place as all those there. I mean, I'd examined them and they look completely the same. Like seriously. And those are wound up way too tightly. They couldn't be the right ones." She glanced around her. "Maybe check these drawers here."

"On it," Fitz said, but something made him stop short.

"Hey, guys?" he called softly, running over to Estelle's study desk. "I think I found something."

Sophie and Biana ran over to his side, staring at what made Fitz stop in his tracks. On Estelle's empty study table, there was only a single piece of blank paper. Completely empty.

Except for three blue bolded words that had been underlined over and over again with the same shade of blue: **I love light.**

"What do you think she means?" Sophie whispered, picking up the fresh parchment and examining it closer. "She loves light?"

"She's a Flasher," Biana said unhelpfully. Sophie frowned. But then her mind cleared, and as she stared around the room, there was only one thing she could think to do. It was ridiculous, but ridiculous might just work.

"Oh my gosh," she said, rushing toward the other end of the room, while saying, "Biana, you're a genius!"

"Who, me?" Biana pointed to herself. "Wait, Sophie, where the heck are you going?"

"To solve this once and for all," breathed Sophie as she rushed over to the floating orbs of light. She stared at the yellow, green, red, grey, and blue light spheres, then back at the piece of paper with blue writing, and knew exactly which one she should choose.

"Here goes nothing," Sophie whispered as she held the paper to the blue orb of light. There was nothing at first, but after three seconds, faint writing in the Black Swan runes appeared at the bottom of the paper.

**Third row drawer from the top.**

Sophie breathed heavily as she deciphered the runes for Fitz and Biana.

"That's it!" Fitz said in excitement as Biana ran toward the drawers on the left of the cushioned couch and pulled the third drawer from the top open. Sophie and Fitz gathered around with Biana, their breaths bated, but their excitement was squashed when they found nothing.

The drawer was completely empty.

Sophie sank down to her knees as the whole world spun in confusion. "What?" she said faintly. "Did we solve it wrongly?"

"Or deciphered the runes wrongly?" Fitz asked Sophie, and Sophie gazed at the paper in her hands again, but then shook her head.

"No, it's correct." She sighed. "Maybe we should—"

"Guys!" Biana hissed. "It's here!"

"Huh?" asked Fitz.

"We did solve it correctly," Biana explained. "We just didn't look properly." She slid her finger across the top, pressed on it, and a secret panel slid open. She retrieved three bunched up and rolled up parchments, and tossed them to Sophie, who hid them somewhere in her cape.

"Come on," Sophie hissed. "We should get outside. Biana, give the all-clear if you see nobody."

"Okay," Biana whispered, then vanished out of sight. Sophie turned off the lights and counted the seconds as the time flew past. Seventy-five seconds and Biana wasn't back. Sophie was about to give up, but then Biana reappeared, her face ghostly in the darkness.

"All clear," she whispered. "But hurry."

She ran over and linked her hands with Fitz and Sophie. And together, hand in hand, they stepped out of the dead's chamber of secrets, with a valuable piece of knowledge in their hands.

* * *

"Thank goodness you're back," Dex said. His face looked weary and exhausted, and so did Keefe's.

They were gathered in the girls' dormitory with Sophie, Biana, and Fitz. Apparently, Keefe and Dex's mission went exactly as planned. ("Thanks to me!" boasted Keefe, puffing his chest out. "No, it was thanks to _me!"_ Dex protested. They both looked at Sophie, but Sophie had nothing to say.)

"Shut up," said Biana, pushing in between the two boys. "So what did you see?"

Dex's eyes widened. "It was . . . I don't know. Just eye-awing?"

"What?" Sophie prodded.

"It was eerily calm and silent there," Keefe said, shaking his head.

"What?" Sophie shouted, before the whole group shushed her. She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. But _how?_ Root Abyss is always _loud."_

She couldn't imagine the chasm without a single noise. The raging storm of water always made it impossible to hear something over the deafening sound.

"That's the thing," Dex whispered.

Nobody said anything.

"Coreana froze the water, Sophie," he whispered. "She froze the water."

"What?" Ella slipped out of Sophie's hands. "But . . . that much water . . . that much force . . . how is it even possible?"

"She did it without any help," Keefe said. "And I don't know what they were trying to do. But it looked _amazing._ There had been this enormous wave that came over them, and Coreana just thrust out her hands toward it and made it freeze. It's still hanging over their heads, but it's motionless and frozen. Now every drop of water is frozen, even the ones on the floor and the ledge."

"What advantage would they have with freezing the water?" Biana asked as Keefe picked up Ella and started cuddling it, but not long before Sophie snatched her away.

"Dunno. Maybe it's fun to try out ice-skating?" suggested Keefe, and everyone groaned.

"Obviously not," Fitz said, rolling his eyes. "I think it has some thing to do with Project Neverblaze—"

"What's that?" Biana, Dex, and Keefe interrupted, and Sophie realised she'd forgotten to tell them about that.

"It's a secret project," she said, "that the Black Swan has been planning for ages. Apparently, Estelle was part of it too. But I don't think they're planning to create another Project Moonlark. They're trying to extinguish the Everblaze forever and do some other stuff or something. Master Leto was extremely vague about it."

"And how do you know about it?" asked Keefe.

"He told us during our Telepathy lessons that nothing escaped his attention. Like how he knew that we slept in your dormitory last night and stuff," Sophie mumbled, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

Biana smirked. "Seems like someone else is also on Team Sophitz."

"What?" Sophie and Fitz said in unison, looking at anywhere but at each other.

"Never mind," Biana giggled, but then her mood turned serious. "So since we have no idea why they're freezing the water, we can search for better clues. Sophie, bring the scrolls out."

Sophie fished them out of her cape, and the five of them pored over the runes inked onto the parchment.

"What do they mean, Sophie?" Dex asked.

"I'm reading as fast as I can." Sophie's eyes scanned the runes. She had plenty of experience deciphering the Black Swan runes. She had to decode the runes in Jolie's notebook once, which took ages because they had to be reflected into a human mirror in order to read them the right way.

There were many random sentences scribbled on each scroll, which confused Sophie a lot, but as the runes turned into decipherable words, her mind basked into understanding.

Sophie frowned at the first scroll.

"What does it say?" Biana prodded her.

"She's here. The moonlark. She looks too much like her. And now, it's too late."

Had Estelle been referring to her?

"Root Abyss is the two-path crossway between the Black Swan base and the Neverseen base," Sophie read aloud from the second scroll. "But today, I discovered that it wasn't a two way crossway at all. In fact, it had one more path that no one knows about—maybe the Neverseen, I think. It goes under the water in the chasm. I remember. I remember when the ogre pushed me into the water when I was injured. The _grusom-daj_ had got the best of me. I couldn't swim. I had been too panicked, and I was drowning. I forced myself to calm down as my lungs burned and my heart pounded. When I finally calmed down, my vision cleared. I was standing on hard ground, and through the raging bubbles of water, I could see a trapdoor. So I pulled on it. It opened. I swan into it. The water rushed in. Panicked, I closed the trapdoor and looked around. I was in a cave. A dark, dark cave. So I began to walk to the end. I saw a black, black door. It was embedded. With the sign of the eye. There is another way through the Root Abyss to access the Neverseen base—"

The music that indicated that it was dinner time rang through the air. Sophie rolled up the scrolls and stashed them under her cape.

"We can't read the whole lot now," she said, disappointed. "We have to go and eat dinner. There are elections, remember?"

Her friends agreed, and filed out of the girls' dormitory. Although the others talked and chatted about the new discovery they made, Sophie couldn't join in. Her mind kept wondering if Adria or Coreana or Soreas or anyone that was there was the spy. Otherwise, why would they have had Coreana to freeze the water in Root Abyss, sealing an entrance to the Neverseen base?

* * *

**Question: Now that I've cleared the fog out a bit, there are more suspects. Coreana. Soreas. Iorgo. Perona. Sam. Adria. Sadie. Christina. I don't know if I'm missing anybody, but one of these eight elves is the spy. I'll be talking more about Iorgo and Perona next chapter, since Coreana has cleared the ice between them and Sophie and friends. And maybe Sam. I was planning to reveal who was the spy this chapter, then I realised that won't work because if Sophie knew who the spy was, and the others also know, they wouldn't vote for *someone*. And the spy wouldn't break the Black Swan apart. Heh heh. I am evil. Thoughts on Project Neverblaze, what you think it is, and what do you suggest in the next chapter. Should the spy be revealed next chapter? See you next chapter!  
**


	61. Chapter 63

**So I was walking along a street in Hong Kong when I saw a decoration store named SoKee. Like really. And then I started freaking out and took a picture of it. And in a Hong Kong park, I saw a sign where there are a lot of musician names. And Tam was one of them. Lol. In Singapore, I saw a store named Keepers, multiple jewellery shops named Sookee, a mobile shop named Vertu (Vertina), and a Vietnamese diner called Som Tam. :P And I went, OMG SO MANY PEOPLE SHIP SOPHIE AND KEEFE LOL.**

**And I have a laptop that my sister used to have, and the keyboard sucks. Like really sucks. So my mum connected a keyboard for me to type, and it's better now that I'm used to typing with it already. And the screen is better, that I have to say! Here I come, at full force! :D**

**I'm so sorry I haven't updated-I had secondary school registration stuff to go to, and sometimes the words don't flow naturally out. so you might find that this chapter isn't as nice as the last.**

**xoYanaaa: So happy you are reading it! But brace yourself, my writing back then was really horrible. But I hope you'll bear with me! :D**

**daringwolf2000: Well, I'm sad to say that SOPHIE doesn't find out who the spy is in this chapter, but you very well may...*mysterious smile* And if Soreas or Coreana is the spy, I have no comment! Thank you so so much and hope you like this chapter too! :)**

**Guest(Nena): I love making readers guess who the spy might be, and I still need to keep silent. And the spy is *sort of* revealed this chapter, but Sophie doesn't realise it. So if you're smart enough...you might know who. And yep yep yep, Fitz liiiiiikeeeess Adria. *mischievous grin* I ship them, but if you ask me who I ship Fitz with in the books, sorry, I don't ship Sophitz that much (But I really do love their secret telepathic conversations together) and after Neverseen I'm kinda stuck at Sophie and Dex, Sophie and Fitz, or Sophie and Keefe. Used to ship Sophie and Keefe but now I'm not too sure. And I ship Fitz with Linh. But urgh, Sophitz is super cute too! Hope you like this chapter and thank you! :)**

**A person: The spy *is* revealed this chapter, but Sophie doesn't discover who it is yet. If you're smart enough, then yes, you'll be able to gape at me all day long. But I kind of want people to keep thinking! And thank you, I try my best to be evil. ;) And so glad you like my concept of 'breaking the ice'. And I updated! These reminders push me to update haha. Merry Christmas! (although I don't celebrate it.)**

**ForeverFreeFall: Yay yay yay you're back! I'm so happy! And I have my lips zipped. Z-I-P-P-E-D. I shall not tell anyone who the spy is, unless they figure it out themselves this chapter! :) Thank you so much and love you!**

**Word Count: 7,164 words.**

* * *

Sophie didn't know what to make of the sight in the dining hall. There wasn't a stage like usual when they had something going on, and no one was talking as they used to. It was completely silent as Sophie and her friends walked to their table, where they met Soreas, Albie, Mira, Iorgo, and Perona.

"What's going on?" she whispered, but Albie shushed her.

"Shh, they're waiting for the rest of the Collective to arrive before we can go up front."

_Master Leto and Madlen seriously want to make us wait in silence before their Highnesses arrive? _Sophie thought in disgust. _And here I was, thinking it would be havoc._

Since nobody seemed like they wanted to talk, she let her mind drift off to the scrolls that Estelle had left for them. So there was another entrance to the Neverseen base, through the water. And what would the Black Swan achieve if Coreana turned the Root Abyss into winter? It would just hinder them, if they were looking for a secret way to enter the other base.

_No, _Sophie realised. Someone in the Black Swan must have given orders to freeze off the water in Root Abyss so that the entrance to the Neverseen base was sealed off. So whatever Project Neverblaze was, it couldn't work. And that someone was the spy himself or herself.

Would Estelle have known who was the spy? Sophie knew Jin had once been one in the Black Swan, but then she realised the Neverseen had probably used the same trick as the Black Swan had been using. They had put a decoy spy that the Black Swan had eliminated, but there was another one of them, lurking around.

He or she might even be the one sitting at her table now.

Sophie shivered as her eyes darted from one end of the long table to the other, and inwardly shook her head. She didn't even know all of them, and getting to know all of their backstories would be such a problem. And the spy might be sitting at another table.

Like Adria. Or Sam. Or Coreana.

She shivered just thinking of that. Adria was scary and Sam was mysterious—a good pair of friends. But Coreana? She wasn't too sure. Coreana had been the leader of the Executive Committee anyway, and would such a shrewd and kind leader betray her order?

Or Sadie or Christina? They were rude, Sophie had to give them that, but she knew that rude didn't necessarily mean disloyalty. She didn't know anything about Sadie or Christina, but Coreana was Christina's sister—Sophie could ask her.

That being said, why was she even bothering to investigate further? None of them could even be the spy—maybe he or she was someone that Sophie didn't know at all.

Her train of thoughts was abruptly interrupted by Master Leto and Madlen entering the dining hall.

Perona suddenly spoke up. "I'm going to the washroom."

Keefe looked suspicious as he asked her, "But don't you have an elections speech to make soon?"

Perona twisted her fingers together and her face looked unsettled. "Nerves."

Sophie felt worried for Perona as she walked away. It took a lot of bravery, courage, and confidence to speak up in front of so many judgmental Black Swan members, and Sophie admired all the nominees for that.

Keefe looked disgruntled as he looked away from Perona, and Sophie frowned. Did he sense something up from Perona? Or the amulet that Sophie had given him picked up on something when Perona spoke up?

"What was up with you?" Sophie whispered. "You were so suspicious of Perona when she just had stage fright."

Keefe shrugged. "The thing that you gave me warmed up, and I sensed jumpy emotions from her, so I thought, 'Hey! Maybe she has something going on!'"

Sophie frowned. Could Perona be the spy? Possibly, but she didn't know her that well. She didn't even know what her special ability was.

"What, you want to check up on her?" she whispered back.

"We can't," he said. "Look, she's coming back. With a girl whose name I forgot."

Sophie's senses came alive and she stared disbelievingly at the two girls.

_Coreana?_

What was Perona doing with Coreana?

"Um, Foster, this is kinda suspicious," whispered Keefe. "What—"

"What are you two talking about?" Dex and Biana interrupted, and Fitz looked grumpy when he realised he was being ignored.

"Nothing," said Sophie, turning away when Perona returned to her seat. "Perona, I'm curious to know what you were talking with Coreana."

Sophie watched Perona's expression carefully, but there was no suspicious sign of anything as Perona laughed and said, "Oh, Coreana? I met her at the washroom—and she explained she was scared that she would mess it all up tonight too. So we walked together here."

Sophie's shoulders relaxed. "Oh." She knew Perona wasn't lying, and a slight nod from Keefe confirmed it. So it wasn't anything suspicious—Perona and Coreana really did have stage fright. Sophie and Keefe had worried all about nothing.

"Honestly," Iorgo said as he slung an arm around Perona's shoulder, who leant her head against his chest. "Stop with all those questions—Perona's stressed as you can see."

For the first time, Albie and Mira didn't say anything to tease them, and Sophie wondered if that was Coreana's doing too. She smiled—she must remember to thank her later.

Suddenly, she saw Sam and Adria stand up from their long table and head toward Master Leto and Madlen. They started to chat about something, and by the grim look on Sam's face, Sophie could tell it wasn't anything good.

_What could have happened? _Sophie wondered to herself. Adria's eyebrows were pressed together, and Magnate Leto's face had turned deathly pale. And suddenly Biana exclaimed, "Hey, isn't that little Dex's buddy? But she ditched him?"

She pointed to the table behind Perona and Iorgo. Sophie followed the direction of where her finger was pointing to spot Coreana sitting with a whole bunch of Black Swan members she couldn't recognize.

"Huh," Sophie said. Coreana wasn't a huge problem to her—unlike Adria, who was ninety nine problems squeezed into one—and not to mention the supposed crush Fitz had on her. Sophie shook her head—Adria was too much for her.

So she focused on what Biana had been saying, and glanced over at Coreana again. Her ash blonde hair was divided into plaits that were twirled and spun together to make one delicate and intricate braid, which had glimmering pale blue snowflakes woven inside to match the ones on her silvery snowy ankle-length gown that had a gradient from green-blue and turquoise to a white and magical shimmery light sea blue. Her feet were clad in glass slippers, but when Sophie stared closer, she realized they were actually made out of ice, and the thought made her shiver.

She looked pretty, and Sophie thought it was probably because of the elections—because all the nominees were dressed up too. Mira, Adria, and Perona were also wearing their own gowns, though Mira had pulled on a dull grey jacket over her shoulders and kicked off her high heels. When Sophie looked down at her feet under their table, there were wisps of honey yellow fabric cascading down to the ground, and with a smile Sophie realized that Mira had torn away the thick petticoats from her dress. When she had teased her about it, Mira had defended herself rather defiantly and said quoted once again that 'I'm not going to look like Princess Coreana, however pretty she might look in that ridiculous costume of hers!'.

Biana had frowned in disapproval at that, and Sophie had to clap her hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

The boys weren't so bad, except that Iorgo had put too much gel on his hair, successfully but unfortunately reminding Sophie of Master Leto when she had seen him in Foxfire.

She immediately looked away after Keefe had teased every single one of them. Although the dining hall was now buzzing with excitement, contrary to the state that it had been in when Sophie and her friends had stepped inside, Sophie didn't feel like she was in the mood for happiness. A dull grey fog settled over her heart as she thought about what Dex had asked her when they had been walking to the medical centre to visit Sora and Prentice:

_So what do you think really went on with Marella?_

Honestly, Sophie didn't know. She liked to think that it was because Elodie had cast a Mesmer Bond on her, linking herself and the Pyrokinetic together so that she could control what she do anytime she wanted, even if Marella wasn't with her. But even though Sophie knew that Elodie really had done that, she knew that it wasn't the main reason Marella was angry at her and turned evil.

Sophie knew that it was because of her. She didn't know what went on when she was still at Foxfire, but she remembered neglecting Marella and Jensi to work with Fitz to prepare for the memory break. She _had_ asked Marella once if she was okay, but that didn't count, Sophie knew that. Marella had answered that she was okay, but she knew all along that Marella had something up.

But she didn't go and investigate what it was.

What a terrible friend she had been.

And she also knew that Marella had wanted to come with her to join the Black Swan, but Sophie hadn't given it much thought at that time. She thought she was making sure everyone was safe by enabling as little people to come with her. And if she really was being honest . . . Sophie wouldn't have thought of Marella to come with her and join the Black Swan.

Sophie shook her head and shook her troubling thoughts out of her head at the same time. That was the past, and the past was in the past. If she really wanted Marella to come back, she needed Elodie to release the Mesmer Bond on her first.

Or else, she would never come back to Sophie, and Sophie wouldn't blame Elodie for that.

She would blame herself, and she wouldn't care if her sanity shattered.

Sophie hoped Marella had been better off with Stina.

Her mind flickered back to reality when Fitz was teaching Biana, Dex, and Keefe to play scissors, paper, stone. He couldn't really quite grasp the concept himself, so as a result, the three other elves were utterly confused.

"You said stone could beat paper, but then later you said that paper could also beat stone. Then what?" Keefe asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"This doesn't even make any sense," complained Dex. "Are human games that confusing?"

Biana nodded her agreement and added, "Are you even sure of the game yourself?" When Fitz shook his head, Biana said in triumph, "I thought so. Le sigh, you are useless—let's ask Sophie instead."

Sophie grinned at Fitz, who held up his hands and transmitted to her, _What? I'm hopeless._

_Come on, let me explain it—_

"What did I say about secret telepathic conversations?" Keefe cut in. "And since when did Captain Perfect and you make up?"

Sophie gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth, and across from her she could feel Fitz stiffen too. But when she braced for the tenseness and the awkwardness to come crashing down on the two of them . . . there was nothing. It was like the tension between her and Fitz had naturally . . .

Her mind clicked the jigsaw puzzles into place as she glanced over her shoulder to meet Coreana's sea green eyes.

Coreana winked at her for the second time this day as she stood up from her seat, her heels clicking against the stony marble floor and making her way to the front. Sophie swore the whole mass of Black Swan members was watching her every move, and she realised that this was natural—and not just because Coreana's beauty had a way of drawing your eyes to her. She had been the leader of the ex-Executive Committee, and there was probably a lot of gossip about her. Not that Sophie had even heard of Coreana even the slightest bit before she introduced herself to her.

Albie suddenly stood up with Mira, and the two of them followed Coreana to the front too. With a frown, Sophie realised that Perona and Iorgo were already at the front, sitting on the floor cross-legged.

"How do they know when to go and sit?" Biana asked Soreas.

"Sir Kerlof sends them a telepathic message precisely when it is time to go," explained Soreas. "Me and Sora also went through the same procedure."

Sophie couldn't help but notice the tormented expression in his eyes, and she was sure it was nothing to do with Biana. Her mind flashbacked to the time when Albie and Mira told her that Madlen and Estelle had been both interrogating and torturing them to make sure that they wouldn't give out the Collective's secrets. Sophie wished that Master Leto would see sincerity and truth in the both of them and just try trusting them.

Would it be the same way with the new elected Collective member, whoever he or she may be?

Sophie hoped not, but a dreaded dry, sickly feeling lodged in her throat convinced her otherwise. She couldn't bear the thought of any of the nominees being tortured. Albie and Mira knew that they were doing it, but would they be able to avoid it? And what would happen to pretty and good-tempered Coreana if she was ever elected as the new member of the Collective? What would Adria, Iorgo, or Perona feel they ever knew or experienced this?

"Hey," said Keefe, nudging her. "You okay?"

She shook her head when she had wanted to nod to reassure him with a false sense of relief. She didn't know what came over her to do the opposite.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dex asked. "Or do you want to teach us the correct way of playing 'scissors, paper, stone'?"

Sophie opened her mouth to answer, but her words were drained out by Madlen's deep voice that echoed strangely around the room even though there was no amplifier.

"Nominees, please make yourself comfortable while I make a speech." He turned to Coreana and gestured her to sit down, even though she looked reluctant to. After an exchange of words, Coreana reluctantly gathered her skirts and sat down on the floor slowly, her gown trailing across the marble like snowflakes skimming the ground.

"We gather here today for an important rally that would count every one of you. Later after all the nominees have made their individual speeches, the Truth spheres will be passed down the tables and then you will cast your votes. When you listen to each nominee's speech, consider him or her justly, not just because he or she is someone you know and like, or someone that you loathe. One of these seven fellow members is to be the new member of the Collective, replacing our dear member that we loved, Miss Estelle Lundian." Madlen's voice cracked on Estelle's name, and Sophie could see that he had loved the Flasher the way Estelle loved him too.

The Black Swan members lapsed into silence as they hung their heads down in respect and mourning. In the corner of her eye, Sophie could see Soreas's pale aquamarine eyes brim with tears, and was shocked.

She had never seen Soreas cry before, not even when his sister was pushed into the Root Abyss—

A sudden realization dawned on her and the world slowly hummed into silence as Sophie's mind ran through the memories of the past. Sora had called them through the wrist cuff that had been on Biana, and it was revealed that she had been in the Neverseen base before she had been captured into the yellow hexagon electrical prison.

And how did Sora end up in the Neverseen base?

She had been just pushed into the water. There was no way she could resurface from the raging water from Root Abyss, and that wasn't the way to the Neverseen base.

But not the only way.

In Estelle's scroll diary, she'd been pushed into the water like Biana when an ogre had attacked her during the ambush on the Black Swan base.

And she had discovered that there was a way through the water and into the Neverseen base.

So that was how Sora had survived and ended up in the Neverseen base.

She had also discovered the secret pathway to the other side.

She must have entered the door, exactly like the one Estelle had described in the scrolls. And ended up in the base.

It wasn't a very big or shocking revelation—it just felt good and so right to finally figure out something out when nobody would tell them anything about Project Neverblaze, which apparently the Black Swan had been planning for ages and ages, long before Sophie, Fitz, Dex, Biana, and Keefe went and joined their pack of members.

Her hands clenching into fists as she drained out Madlen's speech, Sophie vowed that she would find out who was the Black Swan member that had been reporting every move to the Neverseen. Estelle was their only hope, and Sophie told herself that she would make use of every mean she could grab hold of and make that person pay.

* * *

Sophie clapped her hands along with the cheers and applause as the first nominee—Coreana—stood up and parted her lips to speak.

"Thank you," she said after the applause and encouraging sound had fallen away into silence. "My name is Coreana Neigea Glace, and I stand in front of you fellow Black Swan members for a good cause. I believe that the Lost Cities need a strong opposition voice that would speak out against the Council's sometime reckless ways, but at the same time try to make peace with the Councillors in hope that we can someday work with them to create a better place. And being the leader of the ex-Executive Council, I propose and support just that—and I try my best to use my authority, power, and rights to spread the correct message and remind my fellow members that _this_ is exactly what we're all here for—what we're fighting for. Even if my leadership has fallen, I know it's for the best as since we disapprove of the Council's discriminating ways, we should also learn to not discriminate ourselves. That is why I thank Miss Adria, my thoughtful and kind friend, who has thought to be stripped of our ranks so we can be together as one." She stole a quick glance at Adria as she flashed a stunning smile toward the audience. "I chose the snowflake as my slogan as it represents the cold, icy wall separating us and the Council. Let's not talk about the rebellion party—that's a completely different case. As a Froster, I can break the 'ice' between someone and another someone—as in to say that I can clear up the tension between two individuals or more. Now, there is a lot of 'ice' surrounding us, and the Council, something that will take more than just the Frosters' unique talents to clear up. Right now, the Councillors are convinced that we are the real problem—the real public enemy number one." Mutters of anger rose through the air, and Coreana waited for silence to settle before continuing, "But we all know what's the other truth, the one that most of the residents of the Lost Cities won't believe or don't know, don't we?"

Coreana took a deep breath, her hand in a tight fist, resting on her chest where her heart was. "But we have to believe that one day, the Council shall believe that we are not the ones they should be chasing. It's true—even with the Council's close scrutiny, the Neverseen aren't even close to possible defeat. But if there are more allies on our side, we have a better chance."

Madlen handed Coreana a Truth lantern, and suddenly Sophie was reminded of the first time she saw Estelle, who also had been holding the lantern for them to swear fealty.

"And if I am elected as the new member of the Collective of the Black Swan, I promise and swear by the Truth fire to all of you that I shall and will do everything and anything in my power to help my order to reach our goals and objectives, and I vow that I am true to my heart, and will not betray any one of my order. I will lead you all with a passion and heart that is true to you all. Thereby, I end my speech. I hope you will vote for me as the next Collective member and I promise I will live up to how Lady Estelle Lundian filled us with hope."

Sophie saw Coreana's face glow with relief when the dining hall filled with loud applause and cheers.

The next few minutes passed by, and Sophie barely listened to Albie and Mira's speeches as she nearly dozed off from the continuous droning voices. She knew she should listen attentively to each and every one of their speeches, but her mind kept wondering off to the scrolls and wishing she had them with her right now.

But she forced her mind into focus and directed her eyes from blank space to land on the next nominee, Iorgo. He talked about pretty much the same things as Coreana—Albie and Mira were the same—but what distinguished them from the other were their vows and slogans. Each nominee had a different way of thinking how the world worked. Mira's slogan was a cloud—pretty much what a Forecaster would say—and she went and explained about how they shouldn't underestimate the power of a small change. If the cloud grew grey and stormy and covered the sun, it was a small and subtle sign that danger was up ahead. If the clouds were rolling across the sky, it meant that something terrible was going to happen, and so on and so forth. She told them that people usually didn't take notice of these signs, and it usually ended up in a disaster because they either didn't see the signs or chose to ignore them because it was just a small change. And contrary from Coreana's vow, Mira didn't only vow to help the Black Swan reach their objectives and be loyal to them. She said that she would do everything to help the world become a better place.

Albie talked about the mess of the world, and how it was all just a tangle of extra hands and legs jumbled together. And if the people of the world were willing to see the problem and resolve it, the mess would slowly be detangled and that was exactly what he wanted to do. He vowed that he would help to solve all the problems they had one by one.

Iorgo was a different case. Instead of talking about the problems of the world like Coreana, Albie, and Mira did, he talked about understanding the people first.

"I'm an Empath," he said, "and Empaths can sense emotions. And I've been feeling other people's feelings for quite a long time. Before I even decided to join the Black Swan, I already had this sense of wrongness in the world I had been living in. And I asked my mother, 'Why does this feel so wrong?' And you know what she said? She said, 'Dear, what are you talking about? There is absolutely nothing wrong in our world. It is the perfect world for us, immaculate and flawless. The Council makes sure of that, and you're just talking rubbish. There's no wrongness in here, Io. Now go to sleep.' You see? I'd been holding my mother's hand when she was saying that, and what she felt was fear. And maybe a little confusion and desperation. And I didn't even need to feel that to know that people are afraid. They're afraid that their perfect world isn't as perfect as they thought. It's not their nature to be ignorant to what's happening; going wrong. They're just too afraid that a fog has covered their sight from the truth that is secretly spreading. I don't blame the Council—I really don't. They probably feel fearful too. Their perfect world is crumbling down—and when did it happen? When Sophie Foster came into the Lost Cities and kidnappings, which are unheard and foreign in the Lost Cities, started to happen. And she was nicknamed 'the girl who was taken'. They were afraid. People fear change."

_People fear change, _Sophie agreed. So far, Iorgo's speech was the best one.

Perona was up next, and she talked about a subject no one had fully touched on so far: the Neverseen.

"They rebel," she said, "against the Council. I believe that they were once on the same side as us, wanting change, but went so far as to associate with the ogres and attempt to steal the alicorns. They wanted more than us. As soon as Sophie Foster entered the Lost Cities, they wanted to escalate things and kidnap the moonlark in a hope that they could erase her memories and make her as their own weapon."

Sophie felt a chill creep down her spine. Perona had a way of explaining things in a creepy setting.

"Sophie Foster, Keefe Sencen, and Biana Vacker went to the Neverseen base to supposedly become double agents for them. But it was actually to hide the fact that there was another Black Swan member amongst the Neverseen—Miss Adria. And Miss Adria has suggested that there is a Neverseen member among us, hiding and then reporting secret information back to the Black Swan. If I become a member of the Collective, I promise and swear by the Truth fire that I will do my best to protect my order and find out who the double agent for the Neverseen is."

The Truth fire remained clear for everyone except for Sam, but it was because he had a problem with the phrasing of the words. He had accidently said 'help the Neverseen' instead of 'help defeat the Neverseen'. Luckily, everyone knew he was true, because if the Truth fire had remained clear when he said he wanted to help the Neverseen, it would mean he really wanted to help the Neverseen. But it turned foggy, and only when Sam corrected himself it turned clear.

After Sam and Adria had finished, that marked the end of the speeches. Sophie felt like her mind was about to burst from wondering who to elect. After an eternity of thinking, she settled on the one she really wanted.

Madlen swooped in front, gesturing the seven nominees to stand behind him in a horizontal straight line.

"Alright," he said, his voice booming as he waved his hand at Coreana, Mira, Albie, Iorgo, Perona, Adria, and Sam. "This is the much anticipated time. The Truth spheres will now be handed out to you, and then tell the Truth sphere who you want to vote."

Everyone had stayed silent during the speeches, and now the dining hall buzzed with excitement as members discussed about who they wanted to vote.

"Who? Who? Who?" Biana and Dex lamented in unison. They seemed to have no idea who they wanted to vote, and Keefe solved the problem for them perfectly, but Sophie still disapproved of his thinking, however true it might be.

"You don't have to worry who," he practically sang. "Since the Truth thingy will light up and cast your vote when you think about the person you really want to vote for."

Sophie resisted the urge to nag at him, and stayed silent before Fitz asked, _Who will you be voting for? I'm voting for Adria._

_As expected, _Sophie thought bitterly but amusedly, but she didn't transmit that to Fitz as she said, _You'll see._

She wanted her vote to be secret, since she knew her friends would disapprove of it. And back in her human days, her teachers always told them that they had the right to vote whoever they deemed the most fit for Head Prefect of the year, and peer pressure wasn't allowed.

Sophie jumped and scooted back when the gleaming sphere suddenly appeared in front of her on the table.

Soreas noticed and let out a chuckle. "I thought you've seen Conjurors before."

"I have, but I think I'll never get too used to it." Sophie's adoptive mother, Edaline, was a Conjuror. She thought of Grady and Silveny. What had happened to them since the time she teleported them to the Lost Cities?

She decided not to worry too much about it as she settled into her position on the long bench between Soreas and Dex. They switched places every day, but the place where Sora used to sit never changed. It stuck out like a sore thumb and taunted Sophie.

Sophie looked away from the empty space and focused on her Truth sphere. She thought of the person she wanted to vote for so many times that the repeated words slurred together.

_IogoIorIorgo_

She closed her eyes and opened them, a smile gracing her lips when she saw the crystal surrounding the inside of the sphere melt and reveal a clear, bright, and strong flame, the remaining crystal spelling out in loopy letters: Iorgo.

"Seriously? You voted for the ironic guy?" Keefe asked, and that attracted Fitz, Dex, and Biana to look at one another's spheres too. Fitz had voted for Adria (obviously), Dex had voted for Albie, Biana had voted for Mira, and Keefe had surprisingly voted for Perona.

"Well, you can't say anything," replied Sophie, eyeing the crystal letters that spelled out Perona's name. "Why did you vote for Perona?"

Keefe looked away. "She mentioned the Neverseen, and that reminded me of her."

Dex, Biana, and Fitz fell silent with Sophie, and Sophie decided not to prod further. Trying to change the subject but to no avail, she had no choice but to look at who Soreas had voted for. The crystal in his sphere had melted to form Coreana's name. And when Sophie looked around, a lot of people had voted for Coreana. But there were also a lot of people who had voted for Iorgo. It was clear who were the final two now, and Sophie fidgeted in her seat as she waited for Master Leto to finish counting the votes.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting and waiting, Master Leto finally looked up and said, "Forty-four votes for Miss Glace."

Everyone clapped, but Sophie didn't feel like following them as her breath caught in her throat. Forty-four was one-fifth of the Black Swan cohort. It wasn't that she didn't like Coreana, but she wanted Iorgo to win.

"Twenty-five votes for Miss Electra."

Mira didn't win.

The Forecaster looked glum at first, but she soon cheered up when Albie squeezed her hand encouragingly.

"Twenty-one votes for Mr. Leven."

Dex's shoulders drooped, and so did Albie's. But both of them looked okay as they awaited the other nominee's results.

"Thirty-two votes for Mr. Rin."

It took a second for Sophie to figure out that he meant Sam. Sam had more votes than Albie and Mira, and Sophie wasn't surprised. He had proven once again that he was true to the Black Swan by accident, and he wouldn't join the Neverseen.

So he wasn't the spy. Sophie was slightly surprised. From the suspicious way Sam had acted, she'd actually had a little thought that Sam was the spy, but apparently not.

"Nineteen votes for Miss Creux."

So Perona's full name was Perona Creux, Sophie mused. It kind of gave off a creepy chilly vibe that suited her perfectly. And she wasn't surprised that Perona had the lowest number of votes. Her speech wasn't that impressing or inspiring, and her voice had been flat and dull, and it wavered sometimes. Maybe the stage frights were really getting to her, though Coreana had done alright.

"Thirty-two votes for Mr. Autre, and forty-five votes for Miss Adria."

Sophie's heart sank. Iorgo didn't win—Adria won Coreana by one point.

"So the title of the new Collective member goes to Miss—"

"Wait!" Adria called out. "I—I don't want it."

Master Leto's head cocked to the side. "Want what, Miss Adria?"

Adria's arms fell to her sides but she didn't break away from Master Leto's gaze as she said firmly, "I don't want to be in the Collective. I—I don't know why. I've always spent time daydreaming of being a part of the Collective, but . . . I don't want my friends to see me differently. I don't want anyone to see me as one of the members of the Collective, and as a result treat me differently than how they used to, and Sam and Coreana feels the same way too." She tilted her head toward Coreana and Sam, who nodded their heads solemnly. "So . . . me, Coreana, and Sam are out of this league, Sir Kerlof. Give the position to Iorgo, who deserves it better than me."

As soon as she finished her little burst out, the Black Swan members started whispering among themselves.

When her friends were discussing, Sophie just kept her own thoughts to herself as she stared at Adria, whose face was flushed pink. Adria didn't want to be a member of the Collective. Well, that was unexpected.

After a moment of mishap, Master Leto said, "Well . . . if Miss Adria, Miss Glace, and Mr. Rin do not wish to accept the position, we have no choice but to give it to Mr. Autre. Congratulations, Mr. Autre!"

The whole room burst into loud applause, but Sophie could see Iorgo and Perona talking in whispers together, and wondered what they were discussing about.

* * *

After dinner, Sophie and her friends had one period of free time.

As soon as the Black Swan members stood up from their benches and started to file out of the dining hall, Sophie, Fitz, Biana, Dex, and Keefe raced to the girls' dormitory, not wanting to waste any time in reading the rest of the scrolls that Estelle left for them.

But when Sophie flung open the mahogany door, the five of them had a shock.

Jin was sitting on Sophie's bed, crossing her legs and arms as she regarded them with her dark aquamarine eyes.

All of them started to freak out and scream, but Jin didn't do anything as she watched them.

"Miss Sora-Lookalike, what the hell are you doing here?" Dex demanded, his hand clenched into a fist, poised to attack. Sophie felt the punch enhancer that Dex had given her jangle on her right wrist, and in the corner of her eye she could see Biana's hand go to her help-caller and Fitz and Keefe tense.

Jin lifted her head, and Sophie expected to see smugness and evil staring back at them. Instead, her eyes turned weary and sad as she said, "I didn't come here to fight, okay? I just needed time. To think."

"You don't need to barge into the Black Swan base to think," Sophie snapped. "You're banned from here, remember? You can go back to your little home to think about whatsoever. And how did you get in here anyway?"

She hoped Jin didn't discover the scrolls, hopefully still stashed under the mattress. But then she moderated her thoughts, as she knew that Jin could read her mind if she wanted to.

"I'm kind of comfortable here, thank you. Your beds are so soft. We don't even have beds over there." Jin lolled her head over to the wall and rested her body against it.

"NO—you are getting outta here," Keefe shouted. "And I kinda want to refrain from seeing anyone who could contact my mother . . . you know? And this place is off-limits."

_"__Your mother_ is perfectly alright. And I don't care if you want to see her or not. I thought, 'The medical centre has a landscape painting of Estelle Lundian's Wanderling—"

"Oh no, we are so not getting into that," Sophie shouted as she lunged forward, kicking Jin out of her bed with surprising ease. "Looks like you've visited more than one place. What, you want to visit your twin sister? Send odes to her and apologise for everything?"

"I wasn't the one to harm her. You know that very well." Jin got up from the ground and sat down on the bed again. "And yes, perhaps I missed her and wanted to see her again. I did nothing to harm her, don't worry. But I also came here for updates."

Sophie's ears perked up. _Updates._ On what? Could Jin have visited the Black Swan base to see the spy?

Jin cocked her head. "Oops, did I say too much? And yes, there is a leak in your pretty little Black Swan. Oh, what are you going to do now? Comb the base for clues? Darlings, that won't work—"

The door swung open and Adria stepped in. Her glare faltered when she saw Jin.

"What is Miss Sora Heks doing in your room?" she asked. "And why did you call me here?"

Sophie sighed. Adria had mistaken Jin for Sora. All eyes turned to Biana.

She grinned, and tapped her wrist cuff. "Sophie did a good job distracting her. Adria, she's Sora's twin, and she's one of the Neverseen."

"You're not getting me," Jin said calmly the precise moment Adria's eyes widened. She pulled out a small smooth crystal from her pocket and melted away in the light before Adria or anybody could even react.

It all had happened too fast.

Sophie and her friends sighed, and Adria just looked plain confused.

"Hey," she said. "What's going on?"

"We found her just sitting on Foster's bed," Keefe said.

Adria frowned in confusion. "I didn't know Miss Heks had a twin."

"Well, we do," Fitz said as he settled down on Sophie's bed next to Adria. "And she's the Telepath whose capabilities could match Sophie's."

"Does Sir Kerlof know about this?" asked Adria.

The five friends exchanged a look, and Sophie felt at a loss of words. Sophie had been with Biana and Keefe when they found out, and they did tell the others, but Master Leto? They'd just assumed he knew because he knew everything—apparently.

And that was exactly what Sophie told Adria.

Adria laughed—_laughed_—and said, "Well, he always boasts that nothing escapes his attention. And I'm sure this time is no exception, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Sophie after a moment. She was still taken aback by the sudden joking mood that Adria had now. "Yeah."

Adria just laughed some more, and suddenly a bubble of hysteria pushed up her throat, and she fell on Fitz's shoulder, giggling loudly.

Everyone was taken aback, and Fitz looked slightly uncomfortable with Adria's head resting on his shoulder. "Hey," he said gently, trying to shake off her head, "hey—"

He was interrupted further by Adria throwing back her head, making Fitz fall on his back onto the bed, and roared in laughter.

Keefe exchanged a weird look with Biana and Sophie. "What's wrong with her?"

"Don't know," replied Biana, and Sophie felt the same way as she watched Adria laugh. Although it was rather strange to watch a usually scary person laugh, she felt the urge to join her too, and pretty soon the six of them were feeling giddy.

After a while, Adria stopped and smiled at Sophie, a genuine, actual smile.

"Thanks, Sophie. You made me discover how to feel happy again," she whispered in her ear, before walking out of the dormitory.

Sophie stared at her. Adria didn't call her moonlark, for once. She'd actually called her Sophie!

"Okay, that was weird, but can we continue reading the scrolls?" Keefe cut in. "For all we know, there might be something else even more important inside them."

His voice sounded excited, but there was a tinge of worry and impatience behind the excitement, and Sophie knew he was thinking if there was anything inside the scrolls that would talk about Lady Gisela.

"Okay," said Sophie, tearing away her mattress and brandishing out the crumpled parchments, unfurling them. "Let's continue at where we stopped just now."

Her eyes scanned the second scroll, and with much difficulty found where she had stopped before they had to go to the dining hall.

Estelle's handwriting was messy and scrawled, like she had been in a hurry when she wrote all the Black Swan runes onto the scroll, and it took a moment for Sophie's mind to adjust.

_There is another way through the Root Abyss to access the Neverseen base. _

_Pondering if I should open the door. But I wasn't_

_enabled to think further, because the door suddenly _

_rumbled opened, and __QFHDJDSJXDYDGSUXB__ stepped out. _

_Oh no, no, no, no, I can't say who. I can't say who. It would crush everyone if they knew that there was a _

_Neverseen member _

_acting as a member of the Black Swan._

"She didn't say who the spy was," Sophie said, dismayed and disappointed. The name had been scribbled randomly, smudged, stroke through, and destroyed thoroughly. And they didn't even know if it was a girl or a boy.

Sophie squashed the intense urge to just crumple up the scroll and hurl it into the bin. She wanted to know who the spy was. The spy could break the Black Swan apart. Estelle knew, and she didn't want to tell!

But she managed to control her temper and continued reading downwards.

_The point is, someone has been reporting to the Neverseen the Black Swan's every move. _

_Thank goodness he or she is not in the Collective._

_ If anyone is reading this,_

_ please capitalize your eyes._

"What did she mean?" wondered Biana. "Capitalize my eyes?"

"I think she meant that we must use our eyes to look," Sophie said. "And that's all." She slumped her shoulders in defeat. "She didn't say anything about the spy!"

Before she could think further, Coreana came bursting through their door. Her sea blue-green eyes blinked as she saw the five of them sitting on the bed.

"Oh, so here you are," she said. "Little know of the amazing news, and I thought you would like to know."

"What?" Sophie asked.

Coreana's face glowed brightly as she said in a rush, "Prentice and Miss Heks are both awake."

* * *

***laughs evil laugh* for some of you bright ones, you should already know who's the spy.  
**


	62. Chapter 64

**Everyone, ready yourselves because next chapter, THE SPY IS GOING TO BE REVEALED.**

**Word Count: 6,116 words.**

**ForeverFreeFall: Lol, the cliffy cliffhanger tongue twister again...*tries to say it fast* *gives up* And I laughed way too hard at Laughing My Butt Off So Hard My Sombrero Fell Off And I Dropped My Taco. I have no idea what is sombrero, and I'm too lazy to search. XD I have never tried tacos, I haven't even heard of them. Yeah, I know, I live under a rock or something...Hope you like this chapter!  
**

**daringwolf2000: Don't worry about not knowing who the spy is. That means you can be the innocent victim that will follow every twist and turn. Haha! Lol, just kidding. But really, it's okay if you didn't get it-because apparently, nobody got it this round. Hope hope hope you like this chapter! :) **

**A person: So you think it's Iorgo, huh? *smiles mysteriously* well, I wouldn't say anything. But nobody got it this round. Nobody. Eh. Am I smart, or do I need to make things more obvious? Never mind. You're not dumb, because...nobody got it. This is the least I can say. And then you all would go looking at the reviews and crossing out suspects. XD You'll get it, I'm sure.**

**Nena: Oh, do tell who you think the spy is! :D**

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. New Year's Day is hectic, and I know, I know. Deadline=fail. But I expected it right from the start. And the new story would be postponed until this ends-it is too hard to juggle four stories. After I finish this, I'll update WIF(hopefully.) and sometimes, I'd update PAN. (omg, I didn't realise it spelled that!)**

**And apparently, someone unfavourited this story, and I'm so sad right now. :'( *sniffs* But I think I can live without one favourite. I think. Is my story bad or something?**

* * *

"They're awake?" Sophie repeated after Coreana, a little dumbstruck. Images of Sora and Prentice moving about scared her more than it made her happy.

What would Prentice be like? What would he do when he saw her? And what would Sora say when she remembered that she was injured because she took a blow for Sophie?

"Yes, they're awake," Coreana replied, either oblivious to Sophie's expression or ignoring it. "Just happened about fifteen minutes ago. Elwin is tending to them right now, but we're more concerned about Prentice. He's been unconscious for how long? Decades. He's definitely going to have some sort of breakdown."

"Like jet lag," said Sophie, remembering the sickness she always got when her family travelled back from Australia.

The five elves looked at her confusedly.

"What?" asked Coreana, her brows furrowed together.

"Jet what?" Dex asked. "Is it some sort of gadget?"

Sophie sighed through her teeth—an exasperated sound. "Never mind."

"Anyway, the point is," Coreana continued after a break of awkward silence. She clapped her hands together—and Sophie suddenly felt the awkwardness fade. "I know you all have been very worried about Prentice and Miss Heks—so if you would like to visit them, now is the best time. It shall not be long before the great news is leaked out and everyone would like to go and see them."

"Yeah, let's go!" Dex cheered, evidently happy that Sora was awake, but then he noticed Sophie, who had her head down. The shadows hid her face in the dark, so they couldn't see her.

"Sophie?" asked Fitz. "Are you alright?"

"You're not alright," said Keefe. "I can feel your jumbled emotions and dread from all the way here, Foster."

Biana sat down beside her. "You're scared of seeing them? But isn't Prentice everything we fought for? And you were the one who wanted Sora to get well soon, right?"

Biana was right—Sophie knew that. Just this day, she'd went over to Sora and whispered 'get well soon' to her. And now, this wish was fulfilled, along with the Prentice bonus. So why wasn't she happy?

But then deep down she knew why.

She was the reason why the both of them had been unconscious.

Prentice had given up everything to hide her.

And Sora had willingly almost-sacrificed herself for Sophie.

They had proven that they would do anything for Sophie. But Sophie wasn't too comforted by the thought, and even when she forced a reassuring smile onto her lips and told her friends she was okay, she didn't feel okay. And by the look on Keefe's face, he knew it too. But he didn't say anything as they exited the girls' dormitory and walked down the familiar corridor, where Sora had told them she belonged to the Heks family.

She was related to Stina, the queen of evil, although she was nothing like her.

Sophie resolved that she would never judge people by their family again. Like how Elodie was Master Cadence's sister. They did look like each other, Sophie realised. But they were totally different.

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?" Biana asked, and Sophie gasped, pulling herself out of her reverie.

"Yeah." Sophie tried to remember—but she couldn't—because she hadn't even been listening in the first place. "Ah—screw it—never mind."

Biana gave her a strange look, but after a moment she sighed. Then she looked around, making sure no one was listening before she whispered, "Can we meet later? I want to talk. Privately."

Sophie frowned. "Why?" Biana's calm façade suddenly crumbled into an insecure one, and she looked down at her hands.

"I've been trying to regain my memory when Elodie put a Mesmer bond on me, Sophie. And I only caught blips, so I want to know more. Okay? And you said that nothing escapes Mr. Forkle's attention. I want to talk somewhere that he won't know. Somewhere he can't hear. But I don't know how, or where. Do you?"

Sophie thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. I know exactly where we should talk. But we need Mira for this."

"What about Mira?" Coreana asked, coming over to the two of them.

"It's not important," said Biana.

Sophie suddenly noticed that despite the glow on Coreana's face, her shoulders were slumped and her back was slightly hunched. And it looked like she'd been crying.

"What happened, Coreana?" she asked softly.

Coreana looked away. "I don't know what came over me during the elections. I actually agreed with Adria and Sam that I _don't _want the position of the Collective member. And now I think of it, I actually really want to be a member. And now, I . . . just gave the opportunity away."

"But you were great, Coreana," soothed Biana. "You didn't even show that you had stage fright."

Coreana looked confused. "Stage fright? But everyone says I've always been a confident speaker, and I know it too myself. I don't have stage fright. What are you talking about?"

"Oh," Sophie said, but her mind was reeling. "I guess we thought it was you. It must have been someone else."

Coreana didn't have stage fright. So why did Perona said she had?

So she decided to pry further into the matter. "What were you and Perona talking about?"

"Oh, me and Perona?" Coreana smiled, weirdly looking at ease. "Perona was singing a beautiful melody to me, you know. She has talent as a singer. And I'd say it was excellent, but she seemed really nervous about it. She shouldn't be like that. Such talent ought to be showcased, even if it's in the Black Swan. She's a Beguiler, you know. Her voice is naturally beautiful and powerful."

Sophie frowned. Something felt off with Coreana, but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Anyway, I regret that I gave up my vote. But I guess everyone needs to have a chance—I was already the leader of the Executive Committee—Iorgo deserves to be in the Collective." Coreana looked down, but Sophie knew she was hiding the tears that were threatening to fall over. "His speech was the best one, I know."

Coreana was right, but Sophie didn't want to discourage her even more. Instead she followed Biana and pulled Coreana to her side, patting her back comfortingly while comforting her. But inside of her, her mind was spinning from the new revelations.

Perona was hiding something. And Sophie didn't know why or what.

* * *

Sophie stood in front of the drab, dull, grey metal double doors of the medical centre, her hand turning clammy in Keefe's as Fitz, Dex, Biana, and Coreana flanked them on all sides.

Behind these doors was Prentice and Sora.

And they were both wide awake.

Keefe squeezed her hand, and Sophie leaned into it like it was the only thing left in the universe that she could rely onto. Then she drew in a sharp breath, ignored the sweat forming on her hands and her forehead, steeled her nerves, used her other hand to push open one of the doors, and stepped into the realm of infinite possibilities.

She breathed in the sweet but dreadful scent of medicine, noting that it was ten times stronger than usual. Her stubborn eyes flitted to the painting of Estelle's Wanderling hanging on the wall and she blinked away her tears, looking away—but not before silently thanking Estelle for the scrolls.

Then Sophie looked at Elwin, whose face was radiant, but his eyes looked grim and stressed as he said, "Prentice is off-limits for now—but it'll be soon before all of you can visit." He gestured to the bed in the corner where Prentice lay, but Sophie couldn't see him as a curtain had been draped around it, obscuring her view of Prentice. "Only Master Leto and Wylie are allowed for now, and Tiergan will come some time later."

"Tiergan?" Sophie repeated. A picture of her Telepathy mentor appeared in her head, and it was almost painful. She hadn't realised how long she didn't see any of her loved ones in the Lost Cities. What had been going on back there? Maybe she could ask Master Leto when she was free—not that she was ever that.

"Yes," replied Elwin, reminding Sophie she should be paying attention to the conversation. "You can see Sora if you like, but she's been keeping silent and just staring into nothingness. Her mind seems to be fixated on something, so I need you to probe her mind."

"Me, probe Sora's mind?" Sophie asked, half-fearful. Last time she'd entered Sora's mind, it wasn't exactly inviting. And Estelle had also warned her that ever since Sora had suffered a head injury, her mind was quite confusing but cunning.

Elwin noticed her fear, and he said quietly, "I know last time you barged into Miss Heks's mind without her permission, and apparently you saw some disturbing things. It's okay if you don't want—we can always ask—"

"No, never mind," Sophie interrupted, her mind suddenly made up. "I'll do it."

She had been the one that caused Sora to end up in this state. And Sora had helped her a great deal. It would only make sense for Sophie to return her help.

Elwin smiled, and in the corner of the eye Sophie could see Coreana's squared-up shoulders visibly relax. "That's my girl. Come on," he said, heading over to Sora's bed and pulling open the curtains that surrounded her, "but if you guys want to see her first-especially Dex"—Dex blushed—"it wouldn't hurt, I guess."

As Sophie came up beside Dex to study Sora, Biana suddenly walked to her side. She looked troubled, but there was something else in her expression that caught Sophie's attention. She looked tormented, and Sophie could've sworn that a look of guilt and remorse flashed over her eyes for a split second.

But it had been there.

"What's wrong, Biana?" she asked gently, sliding her hand over Biana's. It wasn't that she felt okay—she was feeling quite terrible right now. But she couldn't ignore her troubled friend, no matter what she was feeling.

Biana stared down at Sora's pale complexion. Her auburn hair had been bunched up and brought over to one side neatly, and her pale aquamarine eyes were wide open and staring at blank space. "Sophie . . . I was the one who pushed her into the chasm. If not for me, she wouldn't have ended up at the secret passageway to the Neverseen, right? I figured that much out. And she wouldn't have been captured and thrown into the prison. If it weren't for you, we would have tried and failed to get past the Neverseen and save her. It's . . . it's my fault—"

"No," said Sophie, squeezing Biana's hand, which was shaking by this point. She hadn't known Biana had been so traumatized by Sora's accident, and by the fact that she had been the one to push her into Root Abyss. But maybe when Biana had been Mesmer-bonded, she couldn't feel anything. "Biana, it's not your fault. And either way, you shouldn't—couldn't—blame yourself for it. I was the reason, too. And we shouldn't let guilt break our minds, okay? We still need to do a lot of things, and trust me when I say you're important too. Please?"

Something in Biana seemed to harden, and she squared her shoulders and stood up straighter.

"Okay," she said, her voice firm and determined.

Sophie smiled—but her lips curled down when she realised everyone was watching the two of them.

_Awkward._

"Uh . . ." Sophie shifted closer to Sora, and closed her eyes, preparing herself. "I guess I can probe Sora's mind now, then."

_Don't be afraid, _she told herself. _You can handle it. Sora won't hurt you, silly._

She took a deep breath and settled her fingers onto Sora's smooth skin, near the temples. With a pounding heart and dread settling in her gut, Sophie took the first step forward and stretched her mind to Sora's, bracing herself for anything.

When she first entered Sora's mind, it had been an inferno of Everblaze, as she had been relieving the memories when she was at Fintan's healing, secretly spying on Sophie. And when Fintan sparked the Everblaze in Oblivimyre, she managed to escape, grabbing onto Sophie when she'd teleported, invisible.

But now, everything in Sora's mind was silent and pitch-black. It was also empty. But when Sophie called out for Sora, her transmission didn't vanish. Instead, it floated up and stayed there like a memory.

So she transmitted, _Sora, it's me. Sophie. I'm sorry you had to take the blow for me that time. You didn't have to. And . . . thank you for everything. _

When she got no answer, Sophie knew she had to spark up something more. Something that would rile Sora up. Something that would spark a wildfire in Sora's mind, awakening her again.

_Sora . . . Jin broke into my dormitory today. She was just sitting there, on my bed. She looked sad. And she said she was thinking. I don't know what she was thinking about . . . but it really looked like she was thinking about you. And Soreas. She didn't say it out loud, but I think she really misses you._

The transmission cut a straight beam of light through, and Sophie half-hesitated before grabbing onto the beam of light and letting it push her to another place in Sora's mind, where a gallery of memories were playing. The images were a little fuzzed, but since Sora didn't have a photographic memory, it was expected from her.

As she watched the memories, Sophie realised that all of them were with Jin, or about Jin. She saw one, where Sora was scolded by an elf she didn't recognise. But then, Sophie realised who she was.

_Sora's grandmother, Silla Heks._

Silla was ranting about how she shouldn't play in the animal sanctuary, and she said, "See, now loo' what you've gotten yourself into. You injured your tender little head, and now something's wrong with your mind. Even that 'erlof couldn't make sense of it, and he's one hell of a Telepath. Just listen, Sorajin, don't ever go near the sanctuary again. Are we clear?"

"But, Grandma!" Young Sora protested. Her fingers flew up to the thick bandage that had been wrapped around her head, but Silla slapped her hands away.

"No touching that, youngen. And what's said needs to be followed. Do I make myself clear?"

Her voice was harsh and sharp, and Young Sora cringed at her loud volume. "Yes, Grandma."

"Good." She walked away, and Young Sora glared at the back of her grandmother. But Silla seemed to sense that, and she turned back and shot her a warning look.

That shut Sora up, and even after Silla had left she found tears welling up in her eyes and then spilling out, flowing down her cheeks. It wasn't her fault that she liked the majestic-looking unicorn, right? She'd heard that her relatives in the Lost Cities raised the unicorns, and Sora couldn't help but grow a special connection to them. And she'd felt it when she neared Prillea, the oldest one in the three.

But when her fingers grazed Prillea's horn, Prillea suddenly let out a whinny, buckled and charged at Sora. Sora had felt herself scream as Prillea's hard hooves trampled her skull, but luckily she managed to scamper away in panic before she could crush her mind.

And after that, she'd leaned against the outside of the sanctuary, letting her mind reel. Her head felt light as she leaned it against the hard wall. She felt weird, but it wasn't disturbing or painful, and suddenly the pain was gone. But she must've been bleeding, because when Soreas spot her, he'd started screaming and pulled her to Elwin. Elwin had testified that part of her scalp would never grow any hair anymore, but luckily her hair covered the bald part, so nobody could tease her.

Then Sir Kerlof had come—even though he looked exhausted. He was always going to the experiment lab to work on Project Moonlark, a project that he claimed could be their big change, the thing that could finally break them through. Sora didn't know too much about her, but she found herself fascinated, and she made up her mind that she liked this Project Moonlark.

He'd read her mind, and he collapsed onto the couch where Soreas and Jin always squabbled to sit at in her room. Sora had been Cadets, but Soreas and Jin had already been promoted to Juniors, which made Sora sulk.

"Listen, Sorajin," he'd said. "You're different."

The word _different_ had crawled into her head, and suddenly she was embracing the word and her thoughts were all playing the same thing over and over again. _Different, different, different. _But it didn't feel bad to her. It felt right, maybe even comfortable. Somehow her mind had naturally accepted it.

"Okay," she'd said.

Sir Kerlof had looked surprised at that. "Well, you handled it better than I thought you would. And I need your help. We couldn't figure out something about Project Moonlark's mind, and I think you'd help alright. Okay?"

"Sure," she'd said.

And all that happened after that was a blur. Silla _was_ proud that Sora had helped to create Project Moonlark in a way, but she was still angry. But after a while of crying, Sora's mind told Sora that her grandmother was just worried about her as she'd almost died. So she stopped crying, and precisely that moment the door of Sora's room swung open. Jin stepped in.

In her hands, she was carrying a bag of something big. She set the bag down and ran over to hug Sora.

"You've been crying," said Jin.

"Yep," said Sora. Normally, she would've been troubled with that statement, but her mind just wrapped the statement around and threw it away.

"I thought you'd be miserable. Grandma Silly just scolded you, right? I brought you something to cheer you up." Jin ran to her bag and fished out a pair of boots. They were long and black, with silver straps across the front. And when Jin flipped the boots around, the soles were coated with the same silver surface.

Sophie recognised them immediately—they were the same boots that Sora had been wearing when they were trapped in the electrical prison.

"I got 'em from Perry," she sang, pushing the boots toward Sora. "C'mon, try 'em on. The silver is ellinaum. Y'know, that's super cool, 'cause it's three-quarter resistant to fire or electricity. It's the rarest of a kind, Sora. I thought you'd love it. And I know it's too big for you, but when you grow big, you can wear 'em!"

Sora slid the boots over to her side. "Thank you so much, Jin-_chan."_

Jin grinned from ear to ear. "You're welcome, Sora_-san."_

"But why not just give me the boots when we're older?" Sora asked, putting the boots in the wardrobe and shutting the doors. "Now it's there, and all I can do is stare at it, wishing for the day I'm big enough to wear them."

Jin suddenly looked nervous, and she looked away, her fingers twining together. "Um, I couldn't wait."

Her voice sounded jittery, and Sora caught it. But she didn't push her further, as _she had new shoes. Boots_, to be exact. And her sister had given her to them. She pulled Jin into a hug, wrapping her arms around her.

"I love you, Jin-_chan," _ she whispered. Beneath her embrace she could feel Jin stiffen, but then she melted into her hug.

"I love you too, Sora-_san."_

Sophie switched to the next memory. In Young Sora's eyes, she was whipping her head around her, her eyes widening in fear at the rest of the Black Swan members that were running around.

Soreas grabbed her arm. "Come on, we have no time to lose." His voice sounded strained, and Sora couldn't blame him. She could feel it too, and the headache was soon getting the better of her.

The _grusom-daj, _a certain type of ogre mind torture, was spreading around the whole base, and Master Leto had ordered everyone to gather in the dining hall. But Sora couldn't find Jin.

"Where the heck is Jin?!" she asked, almost shouting as her eyes continued scanning the area.

Soreas tugged at her arm. "She may be in the hall already. Come on!"

In the end, she let Soreas drag her to the dining hall, where she endured the stinging, piercing pain in her mind and fidgeted in her seat.

The place where Jin usually sat was empty.

Sora glanced at Soreas urgently.

"We _have _to find Jin," she hissed. "What if she's captured by one of the ogres?"

Perona, Jin's best friend, was missing too. Sora could recall that Jin had told her they were visiting the chasm for fun. And she recalled her thinking that it was dangerous there.

And in truth, it was. The Root Abyss was a chasm of raging water that splashed everywhere, and sometimes, an occasional tidal wave would rush over the silver arches, drenching the whole place with water.

A sickly dry feeling of dread filled Sora's throat as she envisioned the worse.

What if . . . what if Jin and Perona had fallen into the water? Or slipped on the ground?

No—this was stupid. She wasn't going to sit here in safety and endanger her sister and her sister's best friend, even if she didn't really like Perona, who mocked her for still being a _worthless Cadet scum_. And her face had turned purple when she heard that Sora herself helped create Project Moonlark, who was now in the Forbidden Cities.

"I'm going," Sora told Soreas, and ignoring his protests, slid down from the long bench and ran toward the exit. But after a moment, he followed suit, and the two of them ran out of the dining room.

"Where are we going?" asked Soreas. When they entered the training room, which was empty, his jaw fell slack when he realised where Sora was leading him to. "Hey—the Root Abyss's dangerous!"

"Jin's probably there!" she shouted back, and pulled the door open, almost slipping on one of the stone steps that led down to Root Abyss. The crashing sound of water kept her going down the spiral stairs, and when she and Soreas finally reached the bottom, Soreas pulled open the door and the two of them were immediately hit with a brilliant spray of water.

Sora wiped the water away from her face, but her face soon turned wet again. Her clothes were starting to soak as she slid her hand into Soreas's, her eyes trying to see through the thick mist and spray. In the blurry distance, she could see two figures.

"They're there!" she shouted in relief, and started toward the two figures. But when she and Soreas reached the place, their mouths gaped open.

There weren't two figures—there were three. And Perona looked plain scared as she screamed, backing away from a woman, probably in her twenties. With raven black hair and enchanting midnight blue eyes, her lips curled into a cruel smile as she watched Perona back away.

Perona flung around, and saw Sora and Soreas for the first time.

"You have to get out of here!" she yelled, her eyes widening. "She—She's a bad guy! The ones that Sir Kerlof always talk about!"

Sora's eyes landed on the woman, then flickered down to Jin, who was looking remarkably unshaken as she stood by the woman.

"Jin?" Sora asked, her voice trembling.

"Jin, get away from her!" screamed Soreas.

Jin laughed. "She's a friend." And the woman laughed along with her, tossing her straight hair over her shoulder, even though her wet hair was already plastered to her scalp. "And you two aren't."

Sora looked behind. There was no sign of Perona. Perona had escaped, thank goodness. Why was Jin treating them as the enemy, and treating the enemy as the friend? Unless . . .

"You . . . you b-betrayed us?" Sora asked, her voice breaking. Soreas seemed just as stunned.

"Yup." Jin showed them her sleeve, which bore an armband that had a weird symbol of an eye staring right back at them. It gave Sora the creeps. "Decided I wasn't born to be the silly heroes Grandma Silly convinced us that we were. You're fighting an impossible battle in the Black Swan, siblings. Why not you just join me?"

"I'll never join the evil side," spat Sora. "I don't know what came over you, but I'm going to blame it on that stupid woman."

Jin laughed, an evil cackle, so unlike the warm, bubbly ones she used to let out. "Blame her all you want. It was me myself."

Rage-fire burned in Sora's stomach as the reality started to sink into her mind.

Her twin sister had just betrayed her and Soreas. And the Black Swan. Willingly. On her own.

And then suddenly, before her tears spilled out, her mind grabbed the reality and spun it away, hardening her heart toward Jin. Jin couldn't be her weakness. She must be strong.

"Too bad," she said, her voice suddenly firm, strong, and uncaring again. "Well, let's go, Soreas."

Soreas was crying, but he let herself be pulled away by Sora. And even though Sora didn't look back, she knew that Jin was gaping at her.

She'd been born two minutes earlier than Jin—and she wasn't going to let Jin forget who was the older one. And being the older one, she couldn't let the younger one do reckless things. But she just let her. But for the first time in forever—even if it was just a few minutes before she sunk into the bed crying her heart out—Sora didn't care.

Sophie wrenched herself away from Sora's memories, her own mind reeling. She'd learned so much about Sora's past by just watching some of her memories, though they were admittedly the more bitter ones.

So why was Sora fixated on her memories of Jin and her? It wasn't as if they saw Jin before Sora blanked out. It was Marella. But maybe Marella's attitude reminded her of Jin. Marella had been Mesmer-bonded by Elodie—there was no doubt about that—and Sophie remembered Sora blaming Elodie for everything that Jin had done.

And suddenly, she knew what to do.

_Sora, you don't have to feel sad for Jin, _she transmitted into the silence, despite the flurry of memories that surrounded her. _It was her own choice that she joined the Neverseen, and blaming Elodie isn't going to help._

_Everything's going to be okay. Even though you don't have Jin, you have Soreas. Me. Dex. Biana. Keefe. Fitz. And a lot more people are also supporting you. _

_You miss Jin, right? Well, Jin also misses you. She was sad when she had been sitting on my bed in the dormitory, and she'd said that she was thinking. What else could she have been thinking about but you and Soreas?_

Sophie paused for the words to sink in, but after a while, the words just faded. She tried again.

_You know, the girl that tried to attack me? Her name was Marella. She was my friend. But I didn't care about her enough when she was troubled by her Pyrokinetic ability that she'd manifested. I didn't care enough to find out what exactly was going on. And when we had a fight, I didn't bother to make up with her. And now, she's joined the Neverseen full with bitter feelings. I want to tell her how sorry I am for everything I've done, and everything I didn't do. But now she's linked to Elodie by a Mesmer bond, that means she's totally blind to whatever I say except for Elodie. And . . . if the Mesmer bond was released, I would make up with her. And convince her to return to the good side. But now? I don't think she even misses me. But Jin misses you, Sora. You're luckier than me. And I believe in you, Sora. Come on. Wake up. I need you. We all need you._

Sora's mind suddenly sparked with light, and thoughts floated back, lively as ever. Sophie sighed in relief and exhaustion and then she was pulled out of Sora's mind.

* * *

"Are you alright? You were in Sora's mind for, like, almost half an hour. We were worried you were lost inside, and Fitz tried to enter too, but Elwin forbid him to do so," Dex said in a rush. "Soreas's on his way now. Apparently, he couldn't believe that he wasn't informed first, and poor Coreana was scolded so much that she almost broke down."

"I'm perfectly fine." Sophie's mood turned grey as she recalled Sora's memories, rubbing her upper arms when goosebumps dimpled on them. "Just that Sora's memories are intense."

She opened her mouth to tell her friends about Sora's memories of the past, then stopped. She decided that she would give Sora some privacy and keep her memories hidden inside her mind.

Dex's gaze flitted over to Sora. "Woah—she looks okay now."

Sophie followed her gaze and saw Sora blink her eyes, the colour returning to her cheeks.

"Sora!" she cried out as she raced over to Sora's side. Her fingers tangled with her bony ones as Sora looked up at Sophie.

Sora frowned, then relaxed into a smile. "Sophie?"

"Yeah," said Sophie. "Sora—"

"Thank you." A single tear slid down Sora's cheek, leaving a trail of wetness on her skin.

"It was nothing," said Sophie, blinking back her own tears. "I can't believe you experienced so much, Sora. I—"

"It's okay." Sora looked over at Dex, and her smile grew more radiant. "Dex! Thank you too. For looking after me. I knew you were there all along. I heard you through the haze, but I couldn't respond."

Dex looked away, blushing. "It was no problem. Elwin's probably the one you have to thank."

But Sophie noticed that there was a smile hidden in the corners of his lips, and his periwinkle blue eyes were shining.

"I'm so glad you're awake, Sora," said Keefe. "Things sure have been boring without you around. But Foster made it memorable, of course."

Biana and Fitz nodded along with him, and Sora tilted her head toward them, then sat up straighter when Elwin stalked forward.

"Sora, my girl!" He spread open his arms. "You're awake."

"Yeah." Sora grinned. "But hey, Sophie, you cut your hair!"

Sophie felt the heat creep up her cheeks. "Yeah, I did. It's okay, I kinda like it."

"I don't," Keefe grumbled under her breath, thinking that Sophie couldn't hear him—which made Sophie's blush intensify.

Sora peered at the both of them, and a mischievous look found its way up her face. "Hmm, did I miss something?"

"Um—" Sophie said, about to die of embarrassment, but luckily the sound of the doors opening saved her from answering.

Soreas ran over and gave Sora a hug, which was kind of weird- looking as nobody could hug someone who was lying on a bed properly, but they were Soreas and Sora—they managed alright.

"What about Prentice?" Sophie asked.

"What _about _Prentice?" Sora repeated the question, confused.

"A lot of things have happened since you were unconscious, Sora," Biana said, and poured out every detail—even the one about the spy. Sophie forgot that Soreas didn't know about the spy, so she was brought back when Soreas cried out, "There's. A. Spy?"

"Don't say that so loud!" hissed Sophie, and turned to Sora. Her eyes were distant, like she was thinking about something.

"Sora?" she asked.

Sora shook her head. "I was just thinking who the spy could be. I don't think Lady Lundian would just leave us hanging like that. There has to be a clue that she left. We have to check the scrolls again."

* * *

"You are not leaving the place," said Elwin sternly, towering over Sora, who scowled, but gave in when he said, "You still need to lie down and rest."

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnne," Sora complained, then said to Sophie and her friends, "Just bring the scrolls over here, I guess. And I just want to say, I am so not looking forward to holding a meeting that has Iorgo inside. I mean, that guy is Perona's friend!"

Perona's name reminded Sophie of the memories she'd seen inside of Sora's mind. Perona had been Jin's best friend. That was kind of hard to wrap around with.

"We'll be back soon," she promised Sora and Soreas, and Fitz and Dex stayed with the two of them as Keefe and Biana followed Sophie to the girls' dormitory.

They bumped into Adria and Sam along the way, and a slight scowl appeared on Adria's face when she saw them.

"Where are you going?" Sophie asked.

"To check on Prentice and Miss Heks. I hadn't in three hours." Adria glanced at Sam. "Even though Coreana said that we should stay out of there."

"You should," agreed Sophie, then glanced at Keefe and Biana.

Keefe got the hint, and jumped in. "Yup, do you know that the whole place is stinking of gulon gas?" He sighed wistfully. "This reminds me of the Great Gulon Incident."

"You never told me what that was," said Sophie.

"Someday, Foster, someday." Keefe winked.

Adria and Sam exchanged a look, and Sam sighed. "I really don't want to go in there, Dria."

_"__Gulon gas?"_ Adria grumbled. "Guess we're skipping this visit, then."

"Um, bye?" Sophie called out, unsure if she should even say anything at all.

"Shut it, moonlark. Thanks for the warning, though." And with that, the two of them walked away, away from the direction of the medical centre.

Sophie let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. "Okay, let's get the scrolls and bolt back."

* * *

"So these are the scrolls that Lady Lundian left," breathed Soreas as Sophie handed them over to Sora, who unfurled the parchment and stared at them.

"Have you read finish everything?" she asked.

Sophie nodded. "Though we didn't find out who the spy was, we found out that there actually was a secret way to the Neverseen base that requires you to go under the water of Root Abyss."

"Most intriguing," remarked Soreas as he sat on the bed beside Sora to read. The two of them huddled together, shoulders touching as they started to read the scrolls.

Time seemed to pass slowly as the five of them waited for Soreas and Sora to read the scrolls. Sophie dragged five chairs from the back for them to sit on, and made use of the time to think about what she'd seen in Sora's memories.

Her eyes flickered to where Sora sat with Soreas, the scrolls in one hand, the other around Soreas's shoulder. The two of them were so close, and Sophie wondered how close Sora and Jin had been before Jin had betrayed them and gone to the Neverseen. From the littlest of memories she'd seen in Sora's mind, it was clear that Sora and Jin had once been closer than Sora and Soreas were before.

She wondered how Soreas was coping with Jin. She wasn't that close to him, so she had no idea what he was thinking. But from the way he'd cried when Jin had betrayed them, it must have been pretty traumatizing for him too.

And the boots that Jin had given Sora when they were young? Well, now Sora was big enough for them, and that was after the betrayal happened.

She could've thrown them into the fire to burn.

But no, she still decided to wear them.

It was clear that Sora missed Jin a whole lot. But Sora just didn't know how much Jin missed her too. She might be evil, but once a family, _always_ a family.

"Done!" Sora's voice pulled Sophie out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see her and her brother holding up the third scroll like it was a trophy.

Even though her voice had been cheerful, Sora's face was pale again, and Soreas's expression was grim and grave.

"We found out who the spy was," Soreas said, his face ashen.

"I think you'd be rather surprised," added Sora, her lips pressed into a thin straight line.

* * *

**So, dun dun dun!**

**I'm tired of asking spy-related questions, so we'll focus on another one.**

**Question: What is your opinion on the relationship between Sora, Soreas, and Jin? **

**P.S. I would've named this chapter A Tale Of Two Sisters, but whatever. :P**


	63. Chapter 65

**Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated for a while...especially when I left you on a cliffhanger...But it's okay, you guys are pretty smart. When I made things more obvious, that is.**

**SO YES, THE SPY IS PERONA. All of you guessed it correctly last chapter. (finally! you don't know how much pain I suffered, I had to hold myself back to stop myself from revealing it.) But you guys probably haven't picked up all the clues that I so subtly gave you, so they're all put together in a compilation in the chapter so you can gasp and do all that stuff.  
**

**And yes, I forgot to tell you something. You know the five days I had in Hong Kong? Yep, they didn't go to waste, because I spent my free time planning out the whole fanfic! Okay, not really all, but I picked up the general ideas and the loose ends. So I have planned everything for you, my dear readers. Be grateful, and after this chapter, let's just say we're going to go on a rollercoaster ride. *rubs hands gleefully while envisioning the rest of the story playing out***

**So, enjoy this chapter! (although this chapter's kinda filler, even with like 7,472 words o.O)**

**Now, on to the reviews!**

**A person: Thanks for telling me my story isn't bad. I know it was kinda bad in the first half of the story, but I'm glad you bore with me through it all. *hugs you* And here's your update! Sorry for making you wait so long. :P Hope you like this chapter! **

**ForeverFreeFall: OMG your review made me laugh so hard. Be angry at Elodie all you want! Haha, that may prove I'm evil and am capable of producing evil spawn! *adjusts glasses and smiles wickedly* Hope you like this chapter, because stuff is gonna get real! P.S. About Elodie drowning in Root Abyss or being tased, i have no comment. ;) And -chan is used in Japan to address someone younger or affectionate to you, while -san is used to address someone older and someone you should treat with respect.**

**daringwolf2000: Yep, you'll find out what is Soreas's opinion on Jin and Sora in here. AND CONGRATS, YOU GUESSED CORRECTLY. Hope you like this chapter!:))**

**Random: Thank you for sharing your opinion on Soreas, Sora, and Jin's relationship with me! And thank you so so much! Hope you like this chapter and ily! :)**

**Sugarspice: Thanks a million! Sorry for the cliffhanger, but hope you like this chapter too! ;)**

**hi: Aww, thank you so much! And here's your update and some cookies for the ones you gave me! (::) (::)**

**Nena: Thank you and hope you like this chapter! And was the spy the one you thought it was? If it is, give yourself a pat on the back! :)**

**Swizzlespice: So there's a reviewer named Sugarspice and a reviewer named Swizzlespice. Cool! And thank you sooooo sooo much! Hope you like this chapter! :))**

**JoySeph13: Yup, I think I was actually the first one to know Forkle's identity, so I shared it with you all here, and twinkletoestbh also followed me :D Thank you so much!**

**Thank you to JoySeph13 for favouriting and following!**

* * *

"Who?" asked Sophie, but then suddenly she knew.

The clues had been there all along.

She'd just been too blind to put them together and see the plain truth that was standing right before her very eyes.

The elf who had chosen the paramedics to look after Prentice.

The elf who had been in Root Abyss to suggest they freeze all the water there, successfully sealing the secret entrance to the Neverseen base.

The elf who had used her special ability to convince Coreana to give up her position for the new Collective member, then lied so well to Sophie that Coreana had stage fright.

The elf who was a friend of the new Collective member, so she could easily get information from him.

The elf who had been a friend of a Neverseen member, and maybe even was still one.

She knew the answer even before Sora said quietly, "It's Perona."

Sophie's head was spinning—spinning too fast for her mind to catch up. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and she grabbed on to Sora's bedpost for support.

An image of Perona flashed into her head, with her flat, unimpressive speech. Sophie thought she would have strived for the position of the new Collective member, but apparently not. It was probably because Perona knew that Adria was onto her—so she purposely made her speech dull so that not many would vote for her. And wouldn't the spy seize this rare opportunity and learn all of the secrets in the Collective?

Except, Perona didn't have to do that. She had her best friend, Iorgo—and she knew that people would vote for him because he was sincere in his speech, and what he said really made sense, which proved that he understood their situation well. So what was stopping Iorgo from becoming a member of the Collective?

Well, Adria, Sam, and Coreana. But Sophie didn't think that Adria and Sam giving up their positions was Perona's doing. She thought that Adria and Sam really meant to do it in the first place, and that was lucky for Perona. _Very _lucky.

So with Adria and Sam stepping down, and Coreana being beguiled to do the same, the next one would be Iorgo.

And so Perona's plan worked, and now Iorgo was the Collective member, with all the secrets in stow. And even if Iorgo refused to share the secrets with Perona, Perona, being a Beguiler, could easily enchant him to do so. With her voice.

And the fact that Perona had been Jin's best friend clicked perfectly into place with the jigsaw puzzle.

But . . . hadn't Perona been plain scared when she backed away from Elodie? And Master Leto had claimed that Perona was a good kid. So why?

Though, anything could be deceiving, Sophie realised. And the fact that Sora had shouted to Soreas when she saw the two figures in the mist probably meant that Elodie, Jin, and Perona had heard her, and quickly used Perona, making it seem like there were only two bad guys in the Root Abyss that day.

But in truth, there were _three_ bad guys in Root Abyss that fateful day.

Sophie shook her head in amazement. If the Black Swan had tricks up their sleeve, the Neverseen were master schemers and were always one step ahead of them.

So Perona had been a spy for the Neverseen for so _long?_ Sophie marveled at that—it must have been an arduous task for Perona to keep hiding her true identity. But her awe quickly turned to disgust, and then shame.

If Soreas and Sora had never figured it out, Sophie knew she and her friends would have just been on a wild goose chase, running around and around in circles. They would have never known who the spy was.

She'd actually suspected Adria and Sam. And Iorgo. And Sadie and Christina. And Coreana. And Soreas, even.

Sophie grudgingly admitted to herself that Sora and Soreas _were_ smart.

"Perona?" asked Fitz, his voice faint. "I'd never have suspected her."

"Well, I did," said Keefe proudly. "I _knew_ there was something up with her." He held out the protection amulet that Sophie had given him, holding it up like it was a gleaming gold medal he wore around his neck. "Foster, this thing really is magical or something."

"I thought Master Leto said that Perona is actually a really nice kid," Fitz argued back.

"She is," said Sophie quietly, and everyone turned to look at her. "Don't you see after Coreana broke the ice between her and us, she started becoming more friendly? And we don't feel anything against her? Well, now we do, but that's because we know that she's the spy for the Neverseen. But before that, Perona was genuinely nice. Let's not talk about the evil things she's done—but she really was a nice kid."

Biana and Dex frowned, and Sophie knew they were failing to see the logic behind her words.

"Sometimes it's not the person who's genuinely evil," she said softly. "Sometimes it's the evil mask that hides their real face."

"And here Foster goes, wanting to see the good in everybody, even the bad guys," Keefe deadpanned, and Sophie rolled her eyes.

"But I do," she said, knowing what she said was true. "I really do."

She didn't know what to think of Perona being the spy. But she wanted to find out why she joined the Neverseen in the first place when there was a better place to just stay.

* * *

"So how did you know who the spy was by just reading the scrolls?" Dex asked. "You guys are seriously smart. Especially Sora."

Sora blushed, while Soreas glared at him. "Don't try to win my sis over with flattery, kid."

"Shut up, Soreas," said Sora playfully, but her mood turned serious as she continued, "But, no, it was actually quite easy, if you ask me. You just had to keep your eyes wide open, and search for clues."

She pushed one of the scrolls toward them, and Sophie recognised it as the one that she pondered about so much that her head hurt. But some of the letters had been underlined by Soreas, and suddenly she began to see the answer hidden in the writing.

_P__ondering if I should open the door—but I wasn't_

_E__nabled to think further, because the door suddenly _

_R__umbled opened, and __QFHDJDSJXDYDGSUXB__ stepped out. _

_O__h no, no, no, no, I can't say who—I can't say who—it would crush everyone if they knew that there was a _

_N__everseen member _

_A__cting as a member of the Black Swan._

Sophie's jaw fell open, and so did her friends'. The underlined letters spelled out P-E-R-O-N-A, and they were all capital letters.

"So that's what Estelle meant when she said that we should capitalize our eyes," she whispered. "I thought it meant another thing. I didn't think that she would mean it so literally."

"When you look at a thing, best to look at it from all angles," said Soreas quietly. "Life skills. Like seriously."

"Awesome," Biana breathed, and Sophie swore she saw Soreas's pressed lips curl up for a split second before it was gone. And apparently, Sophie wasn't the only one who noticed it, because Sora suddenly pursed her lips, then opened her mouth and licked her lips.

"Soreas, stay alert," she said with a slightly sharper voice than what she'd been using. And her brother seemed to get the hint, because he looked away and said nothing.

Biana didn't get the hint and she looked slightly confused. But Fitz did too, shooting several death glares toward Soreas, which either Soreas was totally oblivious to, or he just ignored.

_"__Either way,"_ Sora said, her voice laced with clear impatience, "what should we do, now that we know that Perona's the spy? Elwin knows, obviously"—she jabbed a finger at the back, where Elwin was pretending to stir a powdery salve for Prentice—"and all of us know too. So now, we come to a crossway, like the crossway in the chasm area. Do we confront Perona, or we keep it to ourselves? And possibly tell Sir Kerlof or something?

"But anyway we do it," she continued, "all things or choices we make will lead and end up in the same position—Perona gets found out, and gets kicked out of the Black Swan. Which is kind of sad, because I actually do agree with Sophie about her—she's actually a nice kid. A pretty one too."

"Yeah, pretty evil," Keefe muttered, and Sora pretended to ignore him.

"And she was Jin's friend," Soreas suddenly blurted out, and all eyes turned to him.

Sora's face turned ashen pale, and she said faintly, "What?" Then before anyone could answer, her expression became dark, and her voice was the same as she said, "I don't care about her anymore, Soreas. I don't miss her either."

_Lies, _Sophie thought, and she was sure Soreas was thinking the same thing as he looked helplessly at her.

She held out her arms, trying to get the message across,_ Well? Say something!_

He gave her a look.

And that was when Sophie realised he meant for her to say something.

But her mouth was dry, her tongue was dry, her throat was dry, and words couldn't get out of her, the words that would comfort Sora.

"Never mind," said Sora, and even though her voice was neutral, Sophie could sense the disappointed, sad sigh hidden in it, which seemed to tear and rip Sophie into itty-bitty pieces. "I want to be alone. You six can leave me alone and talk about Perona on your own—I don't want to hear."

"Sora—" Soreas tried, but Sora cut him off suddenly, with a loud shout.

"Get out."

"Sora—"

"Just GET OUT!"

Soreas winced at her outburst, and so did everyone else. Elwin came up, his face grey as he shooed the six of them out of the medical centre.

"Come on," he soothed. "Don't worry about Sora—she's just in a bad mood. There was nothing you could do about it."

_But there was, _Sophie thought glumly as she took heavy steps into the silent corridor, matching her exact mood right now. _And I didn't even try to get one word out of my mouth._

She kept quiet as Keefe and Biana talked—the rest of them didn't feel like talking—but when Biana suggested they discuss in the boys' dormitory, Sophie pulled herself out of her gloomy daze and said, "No. Master Leto will hear us there, and we're still not sure if we want him to know. Let's go to the Root Abyss."

_Even though it's totally silent there, _she thought. But she still wanted to see the frozen winter wonderland in all its cold, hopeless glory.

* * *

The quiet footsteps down the spiral stairs sounded so loud in the passageway, and Sophie was creeped out by how silent it was. There was no water spilled on the steps like usual—all the water either had frozen or evaporated.

Sophie ran her fingers across a jagged icicle that hung from the old staircase railing, her hand pulling back to her chest when the sharp edges of ice cut her finger, leaving blood splattered on the tip of the icicle.

She shuddered, feeling slight pain travel into her fingers, and Keefe ripped a piece of his cape that could've been smaller and wrapped it around her injured finger, acting as a bandage. She tried to protest, but he insisted, so she just kept still as his fingers grazed hers, trying not to notice when her stomach flipped.

Suddenly, Biana screamed piercingly, slipping on a large piece of thin ice that had gathered around the edge of the last stair. Her arms flailed around helplessly as she started to fall. But before she landed flat on the ground, Soreas reached out and caught her with his arms.

"Be more careful," he chided her as he released his grip on her waist, letting her stand up on her two feet to steady herself.

Biana's hands were trembling, her breathing slightly ragged, but Sophie could still see the faint blush on her cheeks—something that only happened if Keefe had been the one to catch her. "I'm okay now," she breathed. "Thanks."

"Feeling breathless?" Sophie muttered in Japanese, purposely making her voice louder than usual so Soreas could hear it.

He fixed her with a glare that said, _Oh, shut up._

Despite the seriousness of the current situation, Sophie felt her chest loosening and her shoulders relaxing from the small amusing moment.

But it was soon her turn to become breathless when Fitz, secretly scowling to himself, opened the door and revealed the icy scene that stood before their very eyes.

The Root Abyss was completely clear—with no mist or wet spay obscuring their view. Instead, it was crystal clear now—and there were even little snowflakes falling from the ceiling, joining the pile of snow that blanketed the whole place, even the wooden pedestals. And the chains that held up the chasm were layered with fine frost. But the most amazing part of it all was the chasm itself.

There was a gigantic, humongous, curving arch of water that towered over them, its little watery tendrils stretching out in every direction. But it had been frozen into place, as motionless and lifeless as a stone statue, and when Sophie tilted her head, little glints of light landed on the little crystals, making the whole wave seem almost magical and enchanting. The silver pointed arches swept over them, with frost blanketing the little edges and indentions.

Sophie was thankful the guards were gone—though she didn't know why. Was it Perona, or was it just an order from someone else who wasn't the spy?

"I've never seen snow before," remarked Dex as he squatted down, cupped his hands, and scooped up two handfuls of snow, then letting it fall to the ground again. "It hadn't been snowy when Coreana first turned this to a winter wonderland. Humans are so lucky to have winter in their world."

"It looks magical," Biana agreed with him as she stared up at the wave, and then shuddered. "Though I'm _super_ scared that thing will snap into half, and come down onto us at full force. And then we're done."

"We can shield it with telekinesis," suggested Fitz, but Sophie knew that even with all of their power combined, they could never stop that enormous . . . thing.

"But that's not the point, is it?" Soreas asked sadly, picking up a handful of snow from the ground as he sat on the wooden pedestal, slinging his legs inside the chasm. His feet swept across the water-turned-ice as he continued, "My sister's mad at me, and Perona's a spy. Though that should've been expected—she was Jin's friend, anyway."

"You shouldn't have said that," said Biana quietly, but for the first time Soreas didn't agree with her as she joined him, sitting next to him on the railing.

He shook his head as he stared up at the wave that towered over them, as if it was the challenges that they faced, and now it was mocking them like they'd lost. He crushed the snow in his hand, letting some of it slip through the gaps in between his open fingers as he said, "Maybe—but I knew what was going on through her head. She might have been trying not to think about it, but . . . we can't hide from the reality, past, or the truth forever, no matter how hard it is or was. Sora and Jin . . . they were once the most inseparable twins in the world. And now, something's gone through the three of us, and Jin fell out with us. Now me and Sora are stuck together, and soon _I_ became the 'twin'." He shook her head.

Biana slipped her fingers through his, and intertwined them together. "It's okay—we're there for you. And Sora will be fine. I promise."

Sophie coughed, and so did Fitz. "We all do," they said in unison. Sophie felt slightly annoyed. And Fitz definitely looked like he was _more_ than slightly annoyed.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind them, and everyone turned to see Dex holding up a pair of shoes, but there was an addition of thin silver edges of metal under the soles, gleaming along with the ice.

"I made ice skates," he said proudly. He slipped them on, and trudged over to the edge of the chasm, almost losing his balance. But he managed to keep steady as he rested his feet on the ice slowly, and soon he was skating around the inside of the frozen chasm like a pro.

Sophie couldn't help but roll her eyes at the whole thing. "Seriously? All these stuff with Perona is happening and you're _ice-skating?"_

Dex stopped, his feet wobbling slightly as he struggled to balance on the ice. "Keefe, you explain. I have no desire to."

"Foster. Just live a little. Isn't that why you cut your hair short? To remind you or something of that sentimental stuff? Totally not worth it, by the way."

Sophie touched her short hair. She'd nearly forgotten about her promise. "Okay."

Dex grinned from ear to ear—and skated deftly back to the wooden pedestal, slipping off his ice skates and tossing them to Sophie. Sophie nearly lost her grip on them as she put them down and slipped her feet into it. They were a little big for her, but otherwise they fitted quite nicely.

Before she could set herself onto the ice rink, she caught sight of Soreas and Biana. Their fingers were still intertwined, and they were staring into each other's eyes.

She held back her laugh as she set herself onto the ice. All amusement vanished when her legs wobbled uncontrollably and she quickly grabbed hold of the pedestal before she lost balance.

Dex and Keefe laughed, while Fitz gave her a quirky smile. Scowling but blushing at the same time, Sophie took a deep breath and tried to remember how she'd skated in her rollerblades when she went to the park back in her human days.

Slowly, she took the first step onto the slippery surface. But as soon as Fitz, Dex, and Keefe cheered, a sudden lilting voice stopped their own, making even Biana and Soreas stop and look up.

Perona was standing on the ledge on the other side, her chest puffed out and her lips parted.

The singing was evidently coming from her. And even though Sophie knew she shouldn't listen, it was completely useless. Perona's rich, melodic, and strong soprano voice rung out, filling her ears with nothing but her voice. It was strangely lulling, and Sophie soon found herself falling . . . falling . . .

She jerked herself wide awake as soon as she saw her friends fall limp, their backs leaning halfway on the wooden pedestal. Trying her best to drain Perona's voice out of her ears by imagining other loud sounds, Sophie tore away the bandage that Keefe had given her and ripped it into half, then stuffed one into each of her ears, then tore out more from her cape, doing the same thing while plugging her ears so that she couldn't hear Perona.

Perona scowled, and raised her voice, but Sophie couldn't hear her. When her ears were sufficiently blocked, she darted her eyes around the Root Abyss, feeling at a loss. What should she do?

Suddenly, her feet wobbled and she almost lost balance—and that was when she realised she was still in her ice skates. Then a crazy idea popped into her head like a light bulb lighting up.

She feigned a frightened expression (it wasn't hard with her countless gains of experience on being scared) and imagined she was the little kid that was skating around the ice rink. She'd tried ice skating before, but that was only twice—if she needed this to work, she needed to act like she'd done this all her life.

Then she plunged her left foot forward confidently, then wobbled slightly, almost tripping. Perona stopped to laugh, and that discouraged Sophie a little. But she ignored it and continued with her right foot, then after a few practices she was gliding effortlessly around the round chasm.

Well, that was easier than she'd thought. Now for her target.

Her eyes flickered up to the humongous wave that started from the other side of the Root Abyss and stretched out to where Perona was standing, crossing her arms and watching in both curiosity and amusement.

She drew in a long, sharp breath to try to calm herself down.

Her friends were unconscious—she had to do this alone.

Sophie slid over to the frozen tidal wave, the crystals of ice glinting in the light. Her eyes scanned frantically for the thinnest part, and landed on it. Yanking out both of her ice skates, Sophie cringed when her feet touched the cold, cold, freezing cold ice. But she endured the cold, trying and stood her ground as she—still holding the ice skates—focused the sharp metal on the thin ice and sliced right through it. It was surprisingly easy to cut through, and Sophie couldn't help but feel victorious as she skated back to the edge of the chasm.

The wave teetered ever so slightly, and Sophie couldn't help but scream as she ran out of the chasm, behind Perona.

The scream got Perona's attention, and she whirled around to face Sophie.

_Come on, distract her!_ Sophie thought frantically, her fingers trembling as her mind spun round and round, trying to think of something to say to distract Perona.

"You." She put on an accusing tone, shooting a betrayed look at Perona.

And in truth, she _was_ feeling betrayed. A lot. Sophie knew Perona—no, she _thought_ she knew her. But in the end, it still twisted her heart painfully.

Her first impression on Perona had been bad.

Perona had been a rude, judgmental, and biased girl when Sophie first knew of her, and she'd also trapped Sophie in her vice-like grip too. Sophie couldn't help but shudder as she thought of everything that had happened.

But after Coreana had broken the ice between Iorgo and Perona and Sophie, Perona turned into a different person entirely. She started being warm and friendly to Sophie, and it was like Sophie had never known her at all.

"It was you all along. You were the spy. You betrayed the Neverseen."

Tears couldn't help but spring to Sophie's eyes, making it easier to put up with the act.

Perona laughed, a lilting laugh that sounded like wind chimes tinkering softly—a sound that shouldn't be heard escaping from the spy for the evil organization. "So what if I am?"

"You're going to get kicked out. Of the Black Swan." Sophie didn't know if that would scare Perona, so she added, "Because I'll tell the truth to Iorgo and Master Leto and everybody here. You can't get the secrets you want anymore."

She was glad her voice didn't shake.

Perona laughed again, though it was sharper this time. "Don't worry—I already have them." She frowned. "Wait—this doesn't feel right. This conversation doesn't feel right. If—If you're trying to egg me out, it won't work—"

The wave made a sickening snapping sound, and started plummeting toward Perona, like a monster that was about to swallow her full.

Sophie backed out of the way, but even from a distance, she could still see the fear reflected in Perona's eyes. And it was like her feet had been nailed to the ground.

Perona couldn't move, and unfortunately, so did her friends.

Sophie's heart began to palpitate with a great ferocity, and she ran to her friends and started pushing them aside. It was hard work, but there was no time to lose. By the time Sophie had finished pushing Keefe aside—who was the last person to be rushed to safety—the intimidating and ominous looking frozen tidal wave was mere inches away from crashing onto Perona.

As Sophie turned to join her friends on the safe side of the chasm, something suddenly stopped her, and she whipped back around to look at Perona, who had her two pale arms stretched out and holding the icy wave, trying to hold it back from hitting her. Beads of sweat were trickling down her forehead despite the coldness, and even from the distance Sophie could see that Perona's arms were shaking, and so was her whole body.

She wouldn't last any longer.

A niggling little voice in her mind told her to just let her suffer and lead herself and her friends to safety. Anyway, she was the spy for the Neverseen. She deserved to pay for her sins . . . did she?

But something that had welled up in her heart overwhelmed the little voice in her head, and she could feel her heart hammering loudly in her ears as she ran over to Perona's side, trudging in the thick snow, not really conscious of what she was doing. It was as though some mysterious, queer force was guiding her to what it thought she should do.

And maybe it was right.

Sophie could tell that this gesture came from her heart, and as she thrust out her arms, palms facing the wave and brain-pushing the wave backwards back into the chasm, Sophie couldn't help but wonder if Perona ever thought about what she had been fighting for all this time.

As the tidal wave hit against the metallic chains and the edge of the wooden pedestal that surrounded the frozen chasm, it shattered into a million shards of ice, glinting in the dim light. Sophie shrieked, an unfamiliar sound escaping from her lips as she shifted into the brace position, sheltering herself from any sharp ice pieces that might hit and injure her.

After all the ice had settled in the deep, white snow—like arrows shot in the grim lasting of war—Sophie looked up, both her heart and mind beating loudly as she looked around her.

Biana, Dex, Fitz, Keefe, and Soreas were still where she left them, their bodies crumpled on the ground, though thankfully unhurt.

But Perona was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

"We've been looking for you for almost an hour," snapped Madlen as he paced around his office, almost bumping into Master Leto, who was seated in one of the beanbags that he'd brought over from the Telepathy Room.

Luckily he wasn't pacing around hurriedly like Madlen.

But he still looked mad.

Her friends had been ushered back to their dormitories to sleep, but Sophie refused to go along, and anyway, the two members of the Collective had wanted to talk to her.

Sophie hung her head down in shame, but then she realised that wouldn't help her predicament at all.

So she let a spark of courage blossom in her heart, and that spark of courage encouraged her to look up as she said firmly—surprised her voice wasn't trembling, "It was kind of important. We were at Root Abyss—"

"As you already have shown," interrupted Master Leto, who had been quiet for the time being, eyeing her ice skates that she carried in her left hand. "But you look strained. I suppose Miss Creux had a part to play in this dramatic episode, because Elwin checked them and told us that a Beguiler had mellowed them."

Before Sophie could open her mouth to speak, Madlen said sternly, "Either way, you're not even allowed to go there, remember?"

"Well, then tell me why there were no guards there if you are so concerned with us not going there," shot back Sophie, a wildfire burning in her stomach, growing hotter and hotter by each second.

Master Leto and Madlen exchanged a look, and Sophie could see confusion etched in both of their faces, then realised what had been going on.

But she decided to keep her mouth shut as Master Leto asked, "What do you mean? We always have guards on standby at Root Abyss."

"I knew it," muttered Sophie under her breath. "I knew it was Perona's doing. Something wrong's happening there."

"What did you say, Miss Foster?" asked Madlen, raising his eyebrows. "And if you refuse to tell us, Sir Kerlof can always read your mind, if you like."

"Yes, if I like," Sophie said angrily. "And no thank you, I don't like it. So don't read my mind."

She turned away, her head spinning as she stared at the empty space of the plain wall. There was still the bitter taste of betrayal lingering on her tongue—even though she knew Perona had been doing this all along, even before Sophie was created.

Should she tell them? That Perona was the spy? The practical answer should be yes, but Sophie couldn't help but keep replaying the part where she'd saved Perona from the crashing frozen arch of water.

Why had she done that? It was like there had been _something, _something forcing her to save Perona. But even though her consciousness disapproved of it, her subconscious didn't seem to. Sophie knew the feeling came from her _heart_. It was as if she wanted to save Perona . . . because she couldn't bear for someone else to die because of her once again.

She'd always wanted to see the good in everybody, and that was what Keefe had said about her too. And Sophie knew there _was_ good in Perona. A great deal of it, in fact. She didn't know why Perona had wanted to join the Neverseen.

No. There was something she was missing. Perona had backed away screaming when she had met Elodie, back when she was younger. And even though Sophie wanted to believe that it was acting, she could still see pure, instilled fear in Perona's eyes when she closed her eyes and replayed the tragic scene over and over again. It twisted her heart every time when Soreas cried, and Jin laughed.

Perona _had _been genuinely scared of Elodie. But somehow, she ended up being the little puppet spy for the Neverseen. And Sophie didn't think that she had been under one of Elodie's infamous enchantments—even such a powerful Mesmer like Elodie couldn't hold so many bonds to so many people. It must have been something else that made the Beguiler want to join the Neverseen.

She was mere inches away from the answer, but her connection of thoughts was rudely cut away when Master Leto said, "You're hiding something."

"You still can't read my mind," interjected Sophie, her mind trying to keep her thoughts under control. She knew Master Leto would enter her mind any second, so she pushed all thoughts of Perona out of her head and thought of her friends. Would they be alright?

Sophie didn't feel Master Leto enter her mind, but she knew he was poking around now. And Master Leto seemed to know that she was purposely hiding the answers in her mind from him, because he sighed in exasperation. Sophie felt a prickle of glee, but it soon faded to dismay and dread when he transmitted, _Perona._

Sophie tried not to think about her, but as soon as he said the key trigger word, her mind exploded with memories of Perona and her thoughts echoing over and over again: _Perona is the spy. Perona is the spy._

"Argh!" Sophie exclaimed frantically, feeling a pit of fiery rage burn in her stomach as she tried to pull back her thoughts. But she knew it was too late—he'd already gotten the answers he wanted.

Madlen and Master Leto exchanged a glance, their eyes locked on each other.

Then the both of them sank into their chairs, each of them looking like a thousand years were weighing down on their shoulders.

"I had no knowledge of a leak in the Black Swan," Madlen finally said, his brows furrowed together stressfully.

"That's why you should have told us!" shouted Master Leto, making Sophie cringe at his raised voice.

"…I wasn't sure if I should have told you," whispered Sophie shamefully, suddenly finding her elvin style boots interesting as she twisted her sweaty fingers together then untwisted them again. "It would have caused quite an outrage."

"Yes, it would," agreed Madlen. "We had no idea that Miss Creux was involved in conspiracy matters, much less that there was a leak in the Black Swan."

"Well, I'm surprised you haven't picked the hint up," mumbled Sophie. "Adria was the one who first suspected that there was a spy in the Black Swan."

Master Leto frowned. "Miss Adria?"

"Yeah, and you can stop hiding her last name from me," Sophie added. "I know that her name is Lentz. Adria Lentz. And I don't see anything special about it, unless it's the fact that it's a human surname."

"Who told you?" he asked, his voice surprisingly soft.

Now it was Sophie's turn to frown. "Mira." She'd been so busy investigating who the spy was, she'd completely forgotten about her. If Adria's surname was such a protected identity, if Master Leto didn't want to reveal it, then why did Mira want to tell Sophie?

Madlen sighed. "That girl is nothing but trouble."

"That's not true," Sophie lashed out, feeling a need to defend her friend. Mira and Albie were nice people, and they'd helped Sophie when she was feeling low. They weren't trouble.

"What Madlen means is," Master Leto jumped in before Madlen could open his mouth to argue back, "whatever Miss Electra does is anything but an accident. She plans her every step carefully and nothing is done on accident. You don't know her or Mr. Leven well, but we do. I presume that she would have told you that she slipped Miss Adria's last name up, am I right?" When Sophie nodded, Master Leto continued, "Well, I don't know what Miss Electra is up to, but telling you Miss Adria's surname is a sign she has something up her sleeve. But worry not, it wouldn't be anything bad. Miss Electra is a good person, and whatever schemes she plots, it's always for the good."

Before Sophie could process her thoughts thoroughly, Madlen interrupted and said, "Either way, we should go back to the main line of conversation. What were you saying about Miss Adria?"

Sophie scowled. "Can we use Miss _Lentz _instead?"

"You throw around Miss Adria's family name like it's nothing," observed Master Leto. "You _can't_ do that. If you remember what Miss Elyon said about Miss Adria, her parents were in the Neverseen before they died—but how is a mystery best left unsolved. And Miss Adria is a double agent for the Neverseen. If the Neverseen knew that two of their former members—the Lentzs—had a daughter and that daughter went against her parents' organization, things would be bad not only for Miss Adria, but for us."

"Okay," said Sophie. "I think Adria suspected that there was a spy in the Black Swan, because . . . you know, she's in the Neverseen. And if she's in the Neverseen, and the spy's in the Neverseen too, she would have seen Perona before. And maybe she didn't recognise Perona, but she would have thought she was a little familiar. So . . . yeah."

"You kids," Master Leto grumbled. "Always hiding things from your elders. I thought Miss Adria would have been wiser than you all, and at least tell us her suspicions."

"Actually she did—in front of the whole cohort of Black Swan members," mumbled Sophie. "You just didn't pick her hint up."

"Whatever," said Madlen quickly, evidently ashamed. "I suppose we have to warn the whole base about this, and—" He stopped, looking suspiciously at Sophie. "Where is Miss Creux?"

"I don't know," Sophie muttered, and went further to explain what had happened at Root Abyss, and how after the ice had settled, Perona had just disappeared.

"My best guess would be that she's escaped to the Neverseen base," said Master Leto. "And she would have already warned that we've discovered the truth about her. We must brace ourselves, and prepare for their next move."

"Or, we can be the ones to make the first move," said Sophie, her mind suddenly made up.

* * *

Coreana was sitting on the edge of a chair, her fisted hand supporting her chin as she stared into empty space. Christina was sitting on the other side of the chair, but despite the close distance, the two of them were ignoring each other.

Beside them, Keefe was seated next to Fitz, and the two of them were clearly trying not to fidget. And all thoughts of keeping still vanished like how Vanishers vanished when Sophie walked in.

Biana and Dex were talking to Soreas, but Soreas didn't seem to be paying attention—Sophie figured by the countless times per second he would whip his head backwards to glance nervously at Sora, whose arms were crossed and staring at blank space. But she came back to life when she saw Sophie.

"Sophie," she said quietly, and at the mere sound of her speaking, all the elves turned their heads to look at her.

They all looked like they wanted to speak first, but Sora held up a finger, effectively silencing them before she opened her own mouth again.

"What—" she glanced around nervously, her eyes darting around like she was trying to figure something out. "What happened to Perona? Where _is _she?"

"Well, about that . . ." Sophie's hands flew up to her face, picking out a loose eyelash from her left eyelid. Keefe swatted her hands away, then seemed to realise or see something.

He grabbed hold of her right hand, where the ugly wound on her injured finger had been exposed, the rusty red blood dried up. Sophie froze, and her breath hitched when his eyes travelled down to her cape, which was torn at the edges, where Sophie had used the cloth to stuff them in her ears. Then he took in her overall appearance, and Sophie couldn't help but blush a little when his eyes scanned her carefully and slowly.

"You look horrible, Foster," he said drily.

Sophie felt an idea of a smile tug at her lips slightly. "I know."

"And you threw away my gift for you," he teased. "Such a bad girl."

Sora coughed. "Elwin is on the way. You _all_ look horrible, let's admit that. Now stop it before I go in a corner and puke out all my medicine."

"Okay," said Sophie, hanging her head to let her hair cover her face, but then realised yet again she couldn't. Sometimes short hair sucked—especially when she was sure her face was as red as a tomato right now. "But I came here to seek all of your help. And Coreana's too, especially."

"Me?" asked Coreana, confused.

Christina rolled her eyes as she edged Coreana out of the chair they were sharing together, almost making her fall. "Yes, you. Now leave me alone and join your little band of weird people. At least Sadie is sane _and_ wise enough not to follow you, sister."

* * *

By the time Sophie was finished explaining what had happened to Coreana and company, all their faces had turned ashen.

"She just . . . ran away?" asked Dex. "Gone?"

Sophie nodded, burying her face into her palms. "Master Leto thinks she's escaped to the Neverseen—which really could be the truth and very well may be. So I was planning to make the first move. But by now, we probably are very behind. I _saved_ her, guys. I helped her, and now everything's probably going to go even more wrong because of me."

"It's not your fault, Sophie," said Fitz softly, taking her hand and tracing the star-shaped scar etched on the back of it. "You just followed your heart."

"Well, then, my heart wasn't in the right place."

"Actually, it was," said a voice behind them. "It was just that your brain wasn't."

The eight of them including Sora turned to see Iorgo standing in the doorway with a sad smile on his face. But Sophie didn't have to be an Empath to see that his soul was shattered.

He had heard everything.

Coreana stiffened as he walked into the room and sat down beside her.

"Relax," he told her. "Just because I'm part of the Collective now, it doesn't mean you should treat me any different."

Coreana's voice was as cold as ice as she said, "But they have more dirty tricks up their sleeves than you would ever know."

"Who told you that?"

Soreas shook his head, exchanging a defeated look with Sora. "He's clearly brainwashed."

"But this should wake him up by now." Sora frowned.

Sophie tensed as she realised what they were talking about, but her friends didn't know.

"I'm actually surprised they didn't torture him," mused Soreas, clearly deep in thought. "But that was him and this is us, aren't I right, Sora?"

Sora squeezed her eyes shut, and Sophie could see her face contort in pain like she was relieving horrible memories. "Yes. Nobody should know."

"Well, I know," Sophie interrupted. "Albie and Mira already told me that long time ago. When we met."

"Speak no more," snapped Sora. "We should get straight to the point." She turned to Iorgo. "You're the one who has most information in here. So, unless you want to go through some hard stuff, you better spill everything about Project Neverblaze. They wouldn't tell me or Soreas."

Iorgo's mouth opened, then closed, then opened, then closed again, like a goldfish taking in dissolved oxygen in the water.

"Yup, you can spill," said a new voice from behind them, and Iorgo yelped when Albie and Mira stepped in, their hands rested on their hips casually. And behind them was Adria and Sam, looking very uncomfortable as they shifted their eyes from left to right.

"We're all in this together," declared Mira. "You just can't leave us out of this stuff!"

Albie sat down beside Dex, crossing his legs as he asked, "So what is the Great Sophie Foster planning to do?"

A grin stretched Sophie's lips upward. "Well," she said, feeling a little cheeky, "there's a lot to it. But first, we need to find out what's Project Neverblaze."

All eyes turned to Iorgo, who actually squirmed a little.

"Look," said Sophie softly. "If you help us, we can find Perona faster too."

Something in Iorgo seemed to deflate, but he sat up straighter and his shoulders squared up as he poured out detail by detail of Project Neverblaze. By the time he was finished, everyone was deep in thought.

"So—" Sophie began, but fell silent when Elwin strode in.

"What—" he began to say, but Sam placed a finger on his lips.

"Just keep quiet, Elwin. We're planning something big here."

Elwin opened his mouth to protest, but then stopped and nodded, walking out of the room.

"And can you maybe steer the Collective's attention away from us too?" Biana called.

The doors banged shut, the loud sound echoing around, sounding horribly like the impending doom awaiting them.

And with it, Iorgo's words rang out in Sophie's mind loud and clear.

_Project Neverblaze's main aim is to extinguish the Neverseen, like how Everblaze should be extinguished once and for all. _

And they'd been planning to do so for months—but were always failing to do so because of Perona.

But now, as Sophie looked around at her friends, old and new, she felt a surge of something stir up in her heart. Was it determination? Decisiveness? Pride? Or something else entirely?

Whatever it was, it fueled Sophie and ignited a spark in the pit of her stomach.

A spark of revolution.

And the spark grew hotter and hotter, slowly burning into a strong steady flame. Then the flame turned into a blazing wildfire. But it wasn't the devouring and evil fire that the Neverseen always set. It was a fire burning in her bones, and it was burning brighter and stronger by each second. A fire that made Sophie feel stronger than she thought she was. A fire that convinced Sophie she was not alone, and she could do it.

She was the Moonlark, the Black Swan's last and only hope—possibly even the Lost Cities'.

And she wasn't about to let anything defeat her.

* * *

**Question: Share your opinions and thoughts on this chapter, and about what you think will happen in the further chapters.  
**

**And if you didn't know, Shannon Messenger is holding an election on her social media platforms about what iggy's fur colour should be in book #5, and the three choices are #1: Purple poof, 2# green grunge, and #3, crimson crimp. I was kinda stuck on 1 and 2, so on IG I put purple, and on facebook I put green. What did you vote for?**

**Did you notice I changed the description of the story? *winks* what do you think of it?**


	64. Chapter 66

**Word count: 3,108 words. OK, this chapter is SUPER SHORT. But I don't really care anymore, and anyways I like this chapter more than the last-but it's probably because this chapter has scenes that I HAVE BEEN ENVISIONING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. OK, maybe not the beginning, but I've had them for quite a while. There are still a lot of scenes like that, so watch out for them in the later chapters!**

**And I think you guys would enjoy the shorter chapters. I know you guys prefer shorter chapters, riight? Riiiiiiight?**

**SCHOOL IS SO HECTIC. AND I'M FEELING SO DOWN NOW BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I'M BEING REJECTED BY FRIENDS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL. ARGH. BUT WRITING ALWAYS MAKES ME FEEL BETTER.**

**But am I that bad? That nobody wants to be my friend?**

**...**

**Never mind, I didn't even think much about it this time. Wow, I guess I wasn't really invested in that friendship. Okay, off to find new peeps!**

* * *

**daringwolf2000: Thank you and hope you like this chapter! :)))**

**A person: Ha, then you'll be pleased to hear that this chapter is muuuuuuuuch shorter. Hope you like this one! :D**

**Swizzlespice: Wow, Sugarspice is your sister? That's awesome! Thank you so much and hope you like this chapter! ;)**

**Random: I think you missed some details about Project Neverblaze because I did state clearly that it's a project by the Black Swan. But yes, Neverblaze is Neverseen and Everblaze joined. But it doesn't necessarily have to do with Everblaze, I just created the name because it sounded cool...:P Thank you and hope you like this chapter! :)**

* * *

The Spyball misted up, and she held her breath in anticipation as she waited for it to show something, anything. But then the silver fog cleared, and the blaring letters showed up on the sphere: NOT FOUND.

Impatience and irritation burned in Sophie's stomach, and she had a strong urge to hurl the Spyball to the other side of the dormitory. But because everyone was watching her, she forced herself to calm down.

"It's okay, Sophie," reassured Dex. "You know we all expected this result. We just have to plunge into the plan without any confirmation."

"Yeah, plunge into a trap," she grumbled. "Don't you see that they are always one step, or three steps ahead of us? This is impossible."

"Not impossible," Soreas corrected. "Close to impossible. And now, this is the only way if we want to proceed."

Coreana sighed, "I know I'm a big part of this, and I just want to say, Sophie, you should never give up. If anything goes wrong, it's not your burden to carry—we'll share it with you."

Sophie glanced at her doubtfully. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely positive," she agreed heartily, and Keefe nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, Foster, you're not alone." He smiled encouragingly, then switched to staring at his feet, a grieved expression taking over his face. "And . . . I'm probably going to face my mum. But I guess it's the right thing to do, and I know it's hundred percent worth it."

"You have my support," said Biana earnestly. "We're not saying all this just to make you feel better. We mean it."

She glanced at Adria, and Adria scowled. "What?"

Fitz grinned that movie-star smile, and told Sophie, "You can trust me."

Sophie soaked up the words of encouragement, then squared her shoulders, sitting up straighter. "All right then, we're doing this."

"Great," said Sam drily. "Adria and I have been waiting for this moment for too long already."

Mira and Albie agreed with him, but when Sophie turned and stared at Mira, the expression on her face was unreadable, and she couldn't help but think of what Mr. Forkle had said to her, then wonder if Mira was really planning anything.

But it wasn't the time to think about it. Time was running out—fast. They had to take action now—or face the devastating consequences.

* * *

Sophie stared at the winter wonderland in both trepidation and anticipation. They were at Root Abyss again—it had been the second time since they were here this day. But this time, the beauty of the ice and snow didn't make Sophie feel awed—it felt wrong this time—very wrong. It felt ominous this time, and a chill couldn't help but creep down Sophie's spine eerily.

Her eyes focused on the frozen chasm. She could still see the jagged mound of protruding ice where she had cut through the icy wave, and the pieces of ice that rested in the snow like the tombstones that rested in the ground of a cemetery.

_I'm guessing you don't want to talk about what happened_ _here, _Fitz's mental voice suddenly entered her mind, making her jump slightly in shock and surprise.

_Sorry, _he apologised.

_No, it's okay, _Sophie transmitted back.

Fitz fell silent for a long moment, making Sophie fidget on her two feet. But then he said quietly, _do you think everything's going to work out? I mean, I have utmost faith in you, but sometimes I can't help thinking about my future and wondering if everything's really going to be okay. Our world is in a mess . . . and everything about the Neverseen and the leak in the Black Swan . . ._

It was Sophie's turn to fall silent, and she bit her lip as she sunk into deep thought. How would she tell Fitz?

_Do you think we're going to stop them? _Fitz asked softly.

Sophie wasn't sure if everything was going to work out—but she knew of one thing.

_Yes, we're going to stop them._

Before Fitz could reply, Keefe let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan. "Are you two done or are you two done? This is not the time to have secret telepathic conversations!"

"I agree with Keefe," said Dex.

Biana snorted—or, the closest thing she could come to a snort. "Of course you do."

They had left Sora behind—much to her protests. But Elwin had said that she still needed to rest—and Soreas agreed too. So only Albie, Sam, Iorgo, Mira, and Coreana were coming along with the five of them.

Iorgo cleared his throat. "Are you five done arguing? Coreana's waiting for you."

Sophie flushed. "Oh . . . sorry. Coreana, we can start now."

The Froster frowned, but there was an amused smile hidden in the corners of her new york pink lips as she brushed thr0ugh her ash blonde hair absentmindedly. She looked around at the frozen Root Abyss in both pride and sadness.

Sophie knew she was feeling reluctant to destroy what she had created, and honestly, she herself was too. But she knew they needed to return Root Abyss to its original state. Although the winter version of the chasm was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, it felt so wrong. And it _was_ so wrong.

And that was exactly what she told Coreana.

Coreana sat up straighter, her shoulders no longer slumping. "I think you might actually be right, Sophie."

"Duh," Keefe said triumphantly. "Foster's always right. What did you think?"

Mira rolled her eyes. "And who was the one who was complaining we were wasting time again?"

"Mira's right," Albie agreed.

Iorgo scoffed. "Of_ course_ she is."

"Guys, stop," said Adria, squeezing her eyes so hard that Sophie thought her eyeballs would fly out. "Coreana obviously can't defrost the whole thing by herself."

"Didn't she freeze the whole thing?" challenged Keefe. "By herself? And Foster's done us a great favour already. Is it that hard to defrost it?"

Coreana clicked her tongue at him, then tossed the shovel she had in her hand. Keefe barely caught it as she said firmly, "Dig up the ice from the chasm and maybe I'll accept your unreasonable arguing."

Sophie grinned. "Need some ice for that burn?"

Keefe grinned back as he headed toward the chasm with the shovel in his hand. "Nah, I'm too cool for that."

"Alright, let's go dig up the ice," said Biana as the rest of them collected shovels from Albie, whose extra hands were carrying them.

Adria walked over to the edge of the chasm, and peeked over the wooden pedestal. She stared long and hard at the frozen chasm.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" she asked so quietly, only Sam was able to hear it.

Sam squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Yes, I'm sure."

Behind them, Mira tilted her head slightly downwards, her eyes glinting.

* * *

"Duck!" Keefe yelled gleefully as he hurled the shovelful of snow at Sophie. Sophie shrieked loudly, and barely ducked the snow that was being pelted at her.

Dex rolled his eyes. "We're serious here, guys." Despite the cold, his forehead was beaded with shiny perspiration, and he wiped it off with his lower arm, slightly panting as he rested his body against his shovel. Beside him, Biana was doing the same.

Fitz laughed. "Let them play."

Keefe shouted, "And in case you were wondering, Dex, that is why he's my best friend!"

Albie groaned. "I can't even . . ."

"Half of the chasm is water now!" shouted Mira from the other side. "The weird thing is, the water isn't wild like usual. It's still."

"That may be the case now," said Iorgo, who had been the quietest among all of them, "but I doubt it will be this way later. Better speed up, I suggest."

"On it," replied Coreana, placing one foot gingerly on the wooden pedestal. "Step away, guys."

She snapped her fingers three times, and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, the ice began to fade into nothingness.

Sophie backed into one of the swirly pillars, feeling its sharp metal cut into her back despite the thick fabric of her cape. The fact that Sora wasn't coming with them chilled her, and Soreas wasn't even talking. He was just leaning against one of the shadowy pillars, watching them with an unreadable expression.

Sophie wondered what he was thinking about.

But her train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of Coreana's voice. She snapped out of her reverie and gazed around, trance-like. The ice had completely melted, the snow gone, and the familiar raging water and spray back again. The moisture wet her hair and clothes, and she tucked a thick strand of damp hair behind her ear. Even though she didn't feel very brave at the moment, she _needed_ to be brave. Her friends were counting on her and following her.

She took a deep breath. "Who goes first?"

"You," Mira told her. Before Sophie could even react, she stepped behind her and gave her a big push, pushing her into the impending water.

A half-scream escaped from Sophie's lips as she felt the water engulf her, drawing and pulling her under. But as the water filled her mouth and lungs, she controlled herself and forced herself to calm down. Her vision slowly returned back to normal, and all around her, she could see all her friends gathering around her.

She shot a death glare at Mira, who gave her an impish smile.

_Sophie?_ Fitz's voice filled her mind, soothing her. _What do we do now?_

Sophie tried to recall everything Estelle had written in the scrolls. _Estelle said that we have to let the water drag us down, before we reach a trapdoor to enter the cave._

_All right then._

Sophie transmitted the plan to all of them, and they nodded solemnly. It was time for things to get real.

Sophie felt herself running out of air, so she opened her mouth quickly, then regretted it immediately. The water had a rusty taste to it, like a humongous piece of metal had been dunked into the chasm. Her blonde hair floated around her eerily as she closed her eyes and let the downwards flow of the water pull her down, down, and down.

_Get ready for the rollercoaster ride coming up ahead, _she told herself as her feet suddenly hit solid ground.

She opened her eyes and immediately saw that she was standing directly on the trapdoor, which was around the size of a thirty-inch television screen. Steeling her nerves, Sophie bent down and pulled at the handle with her friends. After a few tugs at the steel handle, the trapdoor burst open, and the water dived down to rush in.

Sophie nodded toward the opening, then quickly dived inside. Her friends followed suit, and Iorgo, being the last person to enter the cave, jumped to close the trapdoor, but he couldn't reach his target as he landed on the rocky ground painfully.

The water continued rushing in.

Fitz muttered a few words that would have earned him a detention session, and kicked a nearby stalagmite.

"The water would keep flowing in and swallow the whole Neverseen base in water in a few hours," Albie said, a tinge of panic in his voice. "If we don't hurry up, we might be stuck in here. So let's go!"

A chill ran down Sophie's spine, making her shudder when she realised the gravity of their situation.

"Then let's go!" she yelled until her voice turned hoarse, racing toward the end of the cave, her friends hot on her heels.

She almost slipped, and she grabbed hold onto a stalagmite. Keefe held her shoulders tight in an attempt to steady her. "Woah, easy there. No use going so fast of we're just going to fall, Foster."

"We didn't trip," Albie pointed out.

Keefe laughed. "As you know, Foster's just clumsy."

"Shut up," Sophie told him playfully as she reached for the door. "We're nearing the base, and we might bump into some Neverseen members. So prepare ourselves."

"Not a worry," said Adria as she downed a few serums, and changed her appearance. Now she had blonde hair and ice blue eyes that made her look queer.

"I know about you," Iorgo told her. "But what about us?"

Behind them, the raging water neared threateningly.

Biana's fingers closed around the doorknob as she vanished into thin air. Sophie heard her voice saying, "There's no time for that. We just try our best to stay hidden!"

Sophie felt a sigh rack her body. "Easier said than done."

But she knew that Biana was right. Sooner or later the cave would be flooded, and if they didn't hurry up, precious seconds would be wasted.

So she drew in a deep breath, letting herself into the familiar boundaries of the Neverseen base.

* * *

They ended up in a plain room with nothing but four walls, a floor, a ceiling, and a door. Sophie glanced back behind her. The door had vanished.

Adria let out a soft gasp. "I know where this is. This is where I usually train."

"You train here?" asked Fitz with an incredulous tone, and Adria nodded. Her face told Sophie she was confused as to why Fitz sounded so surprised. Sophie knew the Black Swan members were used to this environment, and it was no surprise really to know that the Neverseen used similar facilities.

Or maybe, Sophie thought bitterly to herself, he was just feeling overprotective . . .

She shoved the thought out of her mind bashfully, not wanting to think about it. There was no time for jealousy now—it was time for business.

_So where are we going? _Fitz asked Sophie.

Sophie snapped out of her reverie. She realised they had to keep silent, now that they were in the Neverseen base. Anyone could hear them and find them suspicious—even though Adria's training room was empty at the moment.

_Guys, keep quiet, _she transmitted to Fitz, Dex, Keefe, Biana, Coreana, Albie, Iorgo, Mira, and Soreas. _And Adria, lead the way to Elodie's study._

_If Elodie even has one._

They raced down the corridors, with Biana and Adria keeping them safely invisible. One time, Dex almost bumped into a random Neverseen member headed the opposite direction, and Fitz pulled him out of the way in the nick of time.

Adria wasn't invisible, and Sophie was afraid that someone would see her and stop to talk to her. But she soon realised that nobody talked to anybody here. It was sure different compared to the Black Swan, who at least _talked._

Sophie wasn't sure if Adria really knew the way, because the corridor was often divided into several paths, making Sophie's mind spin and whirl around confusedly. But Adria maneuvered around the place like a pro, and soon Sophie's tensed up shoulders relaxed—a little.

After a while, Adria stopped abruptly in front of a set of obsidian black double doors. She held out one finger, and vanished.

The door on the right opened a slight fraction, and Adria reappeared again, beckoning them to listen at the door.

She mouthed, _Elodie inside. With the Pyrokinetic girl._

Sophie tensed. By 'Pyrokinetic girl', everyone knew she was talking about Marella. Her curiosity piqued, she tiptoed to the tiny crack between the two doors, and started to listen to the conversation that was growing louder and louder. True to Adria's word, Sophie recognised the two voices as Elodie and Marella's. And when she shifted her eye to adjust to the surroundings inside, she could see Elodie's blue eyes focused on something she couldn't see—probably Marella.

"Ah, Marella, my favourite girl," purred Elodie softly. Sophie resisted the strong temptation to gag as she continued, "I have a few things to discuss with you." She sighed, resting her face on the palm of her right hand. "You . . . injured Sorajin Heks around two weeks back, am I right?"

Sophie couldn't hear anything from Marella, so she assumed she had just nodded. She must have been correct in guessing that, because after a short moment Elodie nodded in approval, and said, "Good. I know that the Heks girl is a valuable treasure to them, and they pamper her greatly. Jin told me that she is still hospitalized in their pathetic medical centre, and she accidentally bumped into those dratted children." Elodie leaned closer, her eyes taunting. "Marella, you do know what I am talking about, aren't I right?"

Sophie finally heard Marella speak for the first time in Elodie's study. "Yes." Her voice sounded slightly stiff.

Elodie smiled, showing perfect white teeth. "So, I was thinking of something good to do, and I called you here to ask your opinion on this. What do you think about this?"

"It's excellent, Miss."

Sophie cringed. She couldn't take it any longer. She knew exactly what Marella had unfortunately become.

_Her little puppet._

She was just agreeing to everything Elodie said! Not that she was surprised, though. Marella was under the Mesmer bond, which meant Elodie could control her to do anything anywhere, anytime.

"Thank you, Marella." Elodie smiled again, but this time there was a certain glint in her darkening eyes. "The thing is, I wish to speak to the whole lot of them. You know, Sophie Foster, Fitz Vacker, Biana Vacker, Keefe Sencen, Dex Dizznee, Soreas Heks, Albie Leven, Mira Electra, Iorgo Autre . . . oh, and also of course not forgetting our dear Adria _Lentz!"_

Sophie felt a wave of panic rush over her, and beside her, even though she couldn't see her, she knew that Adria was absolutely terrified.

_She knows, she knows about Adria, she knows everything, _she thought. _The Neverseen always do. We were stupid, thinking they can be fooled._

She had absolutely no idea how true her words were.

Marella said, "Would they want to play games with you?"

That surprised Sophie—but not as much as the amount of shock Elodie's next sentence brought.

A dark, sly smile played on Elodie's lips. "Oh, they would," she said lightly, "especially when I tell them that Adria's parents are still alive."

Adria let out an audible gasp—and everyone reappeared. Sophie panicked, her heart racing as she hid behind the door.

But Elodie wasn't fazed as she stared right through the crack between the doors, the calculating smile still playing on her lips.

"Sophie Foster," she said, her voice sickly sweet. "What a lovely coincidence. Wouldn't you and your friends come in here and have a chat?"

* * *

**Dun dun dun!...**

**Okay, so when I was in the library randomly looking for books, I caught upon this book called A Tale Of Two Castles. **

**AND GUESS WHAT'S THE MAIN CHARACTER'S NAME?!**

**THAT'S RIGHT, ELODIE!**

**I'M SO HAPPY, I'M CRYING TEARS OF JOY RIGHT NOW.**

**Phew, okay I'm good now. *releases breath* But seriously. I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know if it's good. But yup, I only picked the book up because...*whispers* IT'S ELODIE! Okay, not whisper then.**

**Question: I always look out for KOTLC real-life references, and I find them without fail. Like SOKEE, the jewellery shop that Sophie and Keefe run. Or SoKee, the decoration shop that Sophie and Keefe run in Hong Kong. I have a mission for you. When you're going out to shop or something, just keep your eyes wide open and find some KOTLc references and tell yours truly, please?**


	65. Chapter 67, Part One

**Hiii guys...In this chapter, I bring announcements. Don't worry, it's not anything bad. But I'm going to half my chapters from now on, for two reasons: 1. Secondary school is really busy, much more busy than primary school, and I will not be able to update if I continue writing really long chapters. 2. And for some reason, my chapters don't seem to be able to be that long as before. I don't know what's gotten into me. Maybe this is my preferred length. Or maybe I've just lost the spark in writing 6000-7000 words long chapters. And it's a relief too, right? I can update more frequently now. The end of this story is coming-I can feel it. But there will probably be about 10 more chapters before I end this story. So all you guys, thank you for bearing with me and coming with me on this journey.**

**daringwolf2000: Aww, you will be my friend if all else fails? Thank you so so much! I'll love to be your friend too! And I can't say for sure if my new friend is going to leave me, but I'm quite all right now! Thank you and hope you like this half-chapter! :)**

**Keeper: Ikr, my sister also looks at me like I'm crazy when I go crazy about KOTLC. And I totally get the feeling of being backstabbed by friends. I've been there too a few times. Hope you are doing fine, and thank you! Hope you like this half-chapter! :)**

**Nena: Thanks for supporting me! And yup, I've seen a few things like that too. Once we were learning about this artist called Georgia O'Keeffe, and I was, like, "Keefe?" Hope you like this half-chapter! :) **

**QueenFantasy: Oh, that's so cool! I know some people hate Alvar after Neverseen, but I love him even more. Hope you like this half-chapter! **

**The Glitter Ninja: Yay, first time reviewing on my story! And that's cool, even though that's quite a stretch! Hope you like this half-chapter!**

**xoYanaaa: Lol, unfortunately there's like literally no Keefe in this half of the chapter, but maybe next chapter? And haha I used to ship Keana, but after Tam came I stopped. :P Thank you so much and hope you like this half-chapter! :)**

**SnowSlushIce: Because he does. I'm not saying this just because I ship a little of Foster-Keefe, but because being the Keeper fan I am, I collected evidence from the real books and concluded that Keefe likes Sophie. Lol! Thanks for favouriting and following and hope you like this half-chapter! :)**

**Thank you to SnowSlushIce for favouriting and following this story!**

* * *

**Chapter 67, Part One**

Adria stared at Elodie long and hard, but her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Her lips parted slightly, like she wanted to respond, to say something, but no sound came out.

Sophie was also in deep shock as she stood frozen on the ground. The Lentzs were still alive? How? Didn't the Black Swan say they were long dead? And how did Elodie know about Adria's secret identity?

Luckily, her train of thoughts were cut short when Adria's knees suddenly buckled as she fell backwards. Time seemed to stop as both Sophie and Fitz rushed forward to catch her, but Mira was faster. Like the wind, she swirled past the two of them and threw out her arms for Adria to land in them.

She glanced worriedly at them, but her expression on her face was dead serious. "Adria's fainted. Do we escape now, or do we go in and hear what Elodie has to say?"

Sophie looked around at all her friends nervously, at a loss for words. She didn't know what to do. She knew they couldn't escape without meeting some sort of danger. There were Neverseen members roaming around these halls, and even if they managed to escape their sight, there was absolutely no way to escape the raging water of the Root Abyss, which Sophie was sure was trying to force open the secret door that connected Adria's training room to the passageway in the cave. And either option they make, Elodie would have the upper hand, because this was the Neverseen base. And Sophie knew they probably would be walking into a trap by choosing the latter, Elodie knew what Adria's parents' whereabouts were, and this was probably really important to Adria.

"Go in," she said, before anyone else could open their mouth to speak. Her friends looked reluctant, but after Sophie transmitted to them about the secret scheme that had bloomed in her mind, they nodded grimly. It was either go in, or surrender.

"I'm waiting, little darlings," called out Elodie from the inside of her study. Sophie drew in a deep, sharp breath and held her head up high, despite the nerves that were pricking at her heart and begging her to do the opposite. Her friends were counting on her, she thought as she took the first step into the most dangerous zone she had ever set foot on.

"Just wait, Adria, Estelle, Kenric, Sora, everyone," she whispered, blinking back her tears. "Everything will be okay. "

Somehow, in her head, she could hear Estelle's voice ring out loud and clear.

_You can do it._

* * *

Marella watched with eagle-like eyes as Sophie and her friends walked into Elodie's study. The sheer confidence that radiated off Sophie scared her, even if it was only a little bit.

Elodie's little voice spoke up again at the back of her mind, _Just keep quiet and don't do anything silly. If I need you to attack them, I will tell you when it is time._

Marella nodded to her mistress's words, inscribing and etching them into her memory, vowing that she would not forget them. But as she looked at the Black Swan members in their uniforms, something deep down in her heart erupted. Confusion? Or longing? Or a sense of justice? Whatever it was, Marella told herself, it should be long forgotten by now. She was not part of the Black Swan—she was one of the Neverseen, and she would right a world that was wrong.

The wildfire that was burning in her heart blazed even wilder at that, like it was trying to reinforce her thinking and mutilating the wrong, opposing feeling.

Elodie threw the Black Swan members an easy smile, and gestured at the empty chairs all around her. "Have a seat, everyone. It's certainly a pleasure to have you all here."

By the disbelieving looks on their faces, Marella knew they were unsure and reluctant to do so. And if she herself was them, she would be like that too. Elodie was hardly ever polite, much less formal. But the Black Swan members were ignorant, weren't they? They had no idea that Elodie was merely acting, an attempt to soften their defences and let their guards down. That was when they were at their most vulnerable, and that was precisely when they should attack.

Elodie's smile turned stormy when nobody made a single move. She glared at a girl with brown hair and a strand of silver, who was holding Adria in her arms tenderly. "You. Sit."

The girl glanced at Sophie with her dark sky blue eyes, questioning her.

Sophie shrugged. The girl sat on the chair closest to Marella, and kicked her under the study table. Marella hissed, kicking her back.

The girl scowled.

Elodie glared at Marella. "Stay still."

Marella bit back her tongue until she tasted copper as the rest of the Black Swan members took their seats.

Elodie clapped her hands together in glee, making the double doors behind them slam shut. Marella saw Sophie and a few of them jump in shock, then whirl their heads around to look at the doors. Inwardly, Marella smirked. Members of the Black Swan were actually so easy to read.

Beside a boy, Biana was leaning her head against her arm at a weird angle. Marella frowned, but Biana's other hand casually blocked her sight.

"What do you want?" the boy beside Biana suddenly blurted out. "And is it true that Dria's parents are alive? Or are you just casting illusions and playing games, trying to deceive us?"

Elodie shook her head. "No, I'm telling the truth. Honita and Thyme Lentz are still living in this world. And in this base too. Yes," she added when they let out a plethora of shocked gasps, "let me assure you I'm not lying to you in any sort. And if you are wondering how I found out Adria was their daughter . . . well, let's just say that I always found this girl, named Aria, eerily familiar. And when she arrived at our base without a particular reason, drenched in mud and stench, panting _dramatically, _I immediately knew something was off. And mind you, Aria appealed to join Neverseen only a week after Thyme and Honita were so called dead." She shook her head as she smiled at Adria, who was still unconscious. "Did you really think I'm dumb? Brant and Fintan didn't suspect her at all. But that's because they hardly put their concerns over members."

"Dria's parents were declared dead by the Council," the boy argued. "How did the Council not suspect anything? I know that their bodies weren't ever found. So why did the Council just declare them dead? Their Wanderlings were even planted, though almost nobody went to their funerals!"

Elodie clicked her tongue. "That is a secret I do not wish to disclose. And if you were wondering, no, every member of the Council is completely loyal to the Lost Cities. None were working for the Neverseen, that's what I can assure you."

She glanced at the ceiling, like she was trying to recall something. "Brant should be coming here in about an hour's time. And by then"—she paused to smile at Sophie, Dex, Keefe, Fitz, Biana, and five other people Marella didn't recognise—"your pathetic mission will become nothing but a failure. Did you really think you could trump us with"—she gestured at the group—"a ragtag team of children? Marella, do whatever you must now." She held a hand to her forehead. "This ridicule must stop immediately."

Knowing that was her cue, Marella stood up immediately and curved her hands to form a casual circle, in which a golden spark set a flame to life, slowly and steadily growing bigger and wilder.

She raised the fireball to fire at the Black Swan members. They were still glued to their seats, their faces stony—probably from fear.

A smile crept up Marella's lips. This would be easy, she thought as the heat radiated around her, causing a few strands of hair to flare up. She narrowed her eyes—

A sudden strong burst of wind flicked the fireball away from Marella's hands. It landed in a corner of Elodie's office, the flickering yellow and orange flames leaping up and devouring the wall. Elodie let out a piercing scream—something Marella wouldn't have thought to hear from her—and suddenly Marella's mind and vision cleared up, snapping to full focus. And as she looked around her, she felt a surge of confusion wash slowly over her. Where was she? What was going on? Who were all those unfamiliar people? And why were Sophie and her friends here?

But she snapped out of her daze when the wall on her left started to crumble into little pieces of plaster, a wildfire blazing to burn away everything right before her very eyes. In the corner of her eye, Marella could see Sophie and the other people lunge forward at a set of double doors—the only path to escape. Then she caught sight of a woman with raven-black hair, who was slumped against the desk. Weren't they waiting for her?

But she shook herself as she realised that the flames were heading steadily toward her. She wished time and again that she could rescue the mysterious woman too, and apologised profusely in her mind as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the exit. But then Marella tripped, and she landed face down on the cold hard ground.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and spilled over the concrete as Marella stretched out her hand toward the doors, which were already closing at a steady pace, like they were sealing her fate. The strength and energy faded steadily from her as the adrenaline that had pumped in her bloodstream vanished. A figure with blonde hair was the last one to exit. Sophie.

"Sophie," she croaked out as loudly as she could, which was already quite faint. "Help me. Help. Somebody! _Please!"_

As if her hopes and wishes were answered, Sophie suddenly whipped her body around, and her brown eyes landed on Marella.

Marella's fingers dangled in the hot air, which was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. She could _feel_ the flames getting closer. She didn't have much time now, and somehow she could feel her life seeping away from her.

"Please," she managed, her eyelids fluttering uncontrollably.

At what seemed was the very last moment, Sophie's fingers wrapped around Marella's, and after a few seconds, they were out of the woods.

* * *

Sophie, carrying a dazed Marella in her arms, ran after her friends down the quiet corridors. Surprisingly, the path was completely empty, which sent unusual chills down Sophie's spine.

Sophie's eyes flitted down toward Marella. Her blonde hair was frizzed and streaked with ashes and dirt. Her eyes were half-closed, staring into blank space. Her body felt limp and lifeless in Sophie's arms. And despite every mean and evil thing that Marella had done to her, said to her, Sophie found herself whispering, "Hang in there." Maybe it was because she knew Marella was only being controlled by Elodie, and it had nothing to do with her own will. Maybe it was because she felt guilty of neglecting her friend when they were still prodigies at Foxfire, and that she was regretting the fight between them. Or maybe it was just that Sophie knew Marella still had a little good inside of her, and that she couldn't bear to see her die inside the fire.

"Hey," said Soreas, running to her. His forehead was drenched with perspiration and he was panting. He glanced down at Marella. "Why did you rescue her?"

Sophie shrugged, pursing her lips together. Soreas wouldn't understand—because he was never Marella's friend. Maybe Keefe and Dex would. But Sophie felt that she was Marella's only steady pole of support for now.

Sophie decided to change the subject. Marella bounced up and down slightly in her arms as they ran. She asked, "Where are we going now?"

"Adria's room. It's not even considered a dormitory. They're given to each member of the Neverseen for them to rest. The rooms are entirely empty, not even with beds. Yup, welcome to the Neverseen."

"Me, Keefe, and Biana didn't have them," Sophie said. "But then again, we only lasted a day." Before Soreas could reply, she asked, "You've been keeping silent for so long until now. What's up?"

Soreas glanced behind them. "I'm worried about Sora. Was I right to leave her behind? She can be quite unpredictable sometimes, and now I'm even more worried, because Biana called for her to come, right? She should have come by now . . ."

"Maybe she's trapped by the water," said Sophie, hating the dreadful idea. "It probably has filled almost the whole cave by now."

Soreas gasped.

"Can Sora swim?" asked Sophie quietly.

He nodded, but he said, "But seriously? It's water from Root Abyss. Anything could happen with that."

Sophie opened her mouth to answer, but it closed again as Adria stopped in front of a black door. Coreana opened it, and they all rushed inside.

Imagine their surprise when they found Sora leaning against one wall, a pained expression on her face, with two dark figures slumped on the floor.

"Sora!" Sophie cried, and Dex rushed forward—

Coreana threw her hands towards Sora, and almost immediately the temperature dropped significantly, trapping Sora in a thick block of ice.

The ice winked faintly in the dim light, briefly illuminating Sora's frozen-into-place and shocked expression.

Dex whirled on Coreana. "What are you doing?!"

Sophie was also stunned momentarily. Why had Coreana trapped Sora? Was she also part of the Neverseen?

Coreana lifted her sea blue eyes to look at all of them. She shook her head firmly.

"That's not Sora."

And that was the exact same moment Keefe decided to suddenly say, "Where's my amulet?"

* * *

Sadie knew she was coming close.

Her weary feet pounded against the wet concrete, almost slipping on the half-torn leaves strewn on the path. Little droplets of rainwater hammered against her shoulders, and Sadie pulled her dark cloak tighter around her, both attempting to block the water from seeping in and scarring the mysterious capsule she hid inside her pocket and attempting to calm her palpitating heart down, even if it was just a little.

The rhythm of her pounding chest fell in time with the golden amulet bouncing up and down on the skin near her collarbones. It was glowing with a radiant light that kept growing brighter and brighter when she got closer to the ominous-looking and steampunk-like shophouse, which on the banner read _"Firenze Moda"._

Sadie took a deep breath, steeling her nerves as she pushed the stained glass door open, and stepped inside. Everything was drab and grey, blanketed in total darkness. Sadie snapped her fingers for bright light to flood in, illuminating the dark surroundings and turning the shadows into light. There was a cashier counter, and beside it the racks of human clothes were pushed hastily into one corner.

They were all burnt and singed, the ashes piled up on the centre of the counter, building a small sloping mountain upwards. Despite the raging sound of the rain outside the shop, Sadie's world suddenly crashed to silence.

Sadie held up the amulet, trying to ignore the way her hair dripped on her already wet clothes. The amulet was glowing at full brightness now, and the bright radiance glowed all over her chest.

"Found you," she whispered triumphantly, her breath catching in her throat, and slipped on a pair of gloves. Then she stuck three fingers into the heaping mound of dark grey ash, rummaging around gingerly. And that was when her fingers closed onto a round, solid object.

Trying not to feel too excited, Sadie pulled out the other half of the amulet, the missing piece.

_"__Got you."_

She slipped off her gloves, her fingers trembling in both anticipation and terror, and used her thumb to shakily wipe off the ashes that had stuck onto the silver shard. A sliver of dim light caught off the smooth surface, making it gleam brightly for a split second. But it didn't glow like the golden shard did. And when Sadie ripped off the golden shard from her neck and pieced the two together—

_"__Zzzzzzz!" _

The two pieces of the amulet completely stopped glowing with a zapping, piercing sound, striking against each other with a blazing force, and then flew back as quick as lightning to either side of the counter with two resounding, final thuds. Then everything just screeched to silence and shock.

* * *

**Question: Sadie, you're being very mysterious! Whatever is this all about?  
**

**(Hint: Keefe lost the amulet that Sophie gave him. And who was the one who gave Sophie the amulet? And who did that someone miss very much?)**


	66. Chapter 67, Part Two

**Hello guys. Sorry for not updating sooner. If you guys have read my Payback's A Nightmare story, you would have known that I was super busy with examinations, CCA, and art classes. But now I'm back in full force!**

**This chapter will reveal something shocking, but Sophie will not be there to witness/experience it. But she will find out eventually. And I actually just came up with that plot twist, like, while I was writing the thing. So the plot twist inside this chapter was something I didn't even plan for. So...hope you enjoy it. You all will have different views on it, I'm sure. And some will be totally confused. I know. But when Sophie finds out, all will be explained clearly.**

**So Shannon Messenger said that she was actually staring at the Lodestar cover. I can't wait to see how it looks like! I want it to have Tam and Linh inside, and maybe Dex. He hasn't shown up since the first book cover. I kind of miss him and his large involvement.**

**A person: Sadly, I won't be doing Lodestar, although once I wrote the first five chapters of my version. But as I read through it, I realised it wouldn't really be worth it. Secondary school is really hectic, and there's already another version of Lodestar on this site. And you have no idea how many times I had the urge to give up on this story. But don't worry, I will finish this story!  
**

**daringwolf2000: Don't worry if you can't remember. It means I can lead you all round and round. *lets out evil laugh* Anyway, sorry for making you wait so long. I had exams. Thank you for your endless support and hope you like this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 67, Part Two  
**

"Your amulet is gone?" Sophie asked faintly, still a little stunned in shock of the rush of events that had piled up on them. In front of her, just a few meters away, Jin's dark aquamarine eyes stared out at her lifelessly, the block of ice she was encased in the only thing blocking her from escape.

She whirled to Keefe, whose hands were at his neck. "I thought you said you would take good care of it!"

She was surprised at how loud her voice was, and stepped back a little.

Keefe bit his lip anxiously. "I did. But it still disappeared."

Sophie let out a sigh that sounded more like a soft growl—which she'd never do under normal circumstances. She ran her hands through her entangled blonde hair as the weight of a thousand burdens came crashing down on her. Why was she so frustrated? It was just an amulet. She didn't even _like_ Madlen. So why was she overreacting?

Biana frowned, in deep thought. "The amulet couldn't be _that _ important. Wasn't it the one that Madlen gave you? What does it even symbolize?"

"That's it. I _don't_ know." Sophie paced the ground around Jin absentmindedly, her mind spinning. She felt dizzy herself as she stopped for a while to catch her breath. "But Madlen doesn't even like me. And the fact that he still gave it to _me, _not Soreas or Sora or anybody else, means that it was important." She slumped down, her back sliding from the wall she was leaning on. She lowered herself onto the ground and leant her head against it, letting the sheer coldness sink into her sweaty form. "I know you couldn't have lost the amulet accidentally. Someone must have stolen it."

While she said that, she clutched the bare spot on her skin, near her collarbones, where the amulet had once been. It had been a long time since she passed it to Keefe, but somehow she still missed it. The amulet had produced warmth when something was wrong, warning her, guiding her, and steering her away from the wrong direction and to the right way. Even when Keefe was wearing it, the amulet had told him that Perona, unknown spy that time, was lying.

But now it was gone forever.

Sophie willed herself not to cry. She blinked back her tears and drew in several sharp breaths, trying in vain to calm herself down without inflicting tranquility on herself. "Okay"—deep breath—"sorry"—another deep breath—"this is not the time to talk about this"—yet another deep breath—"what do we do about them?"

Even if she didn't point to the two Neverseen members, everyone knew who she was talking about. Jin, trapped in Coreana's icy prison, and Marella, lying motionless on the cold hard ground. They were both weak and incapable of doing anything to harm them now. Then Sophie remembered something as her mind slowed and the memories came rushing in again, clearer and at a slower pace this time.

Marella directing a fireball at them. Mira and Soreas conjuring the wind to blow it away from them. The fireball landing in the corner of the study instead and setting the whole room on fire. Marella screaming. Sophie hesitating and saving her from the fire.

But Elodie . . .

What happened to Elodie?

Where was she?

Albie seemed to catch the flow of her thoughts. "Elodie's dead," he said quietly, so quietly that Sophie had to strain to hear him. But his soft voice didn't decrease the enormity of the whole situation, not even in the slightest.

One of the leaders of the Neverseen.

One of the most powerful Mesmers in the world.

Burning out of existence in her own little puppet's fire.

Chills crept down Sophie's spine and she shuddered, goosebumps dimpling her arms. She rubbed them intensively, trying to bring warmth to them and comfort herself.

She should have felt happy, or felt even a spark of relief in her. But there was an unusual, hollow, empty and cold sensation inside her heart. She thought of Elodie's face, raven black hair and midnight blue eyes, and another face materialized and surfaced in her mind. Lady Cadence. Once upon a time, when Sophie had first found out that they were sisters, she thought no resemblance between the two of them. But now, Sophie realised they were very much alike—and not only in appearance.

Jin's words rang in her mind.

_Cadence doesn't even know Elodie, much less know that she has a sister._

How would Lady Cadence react when she found out—if she ever found out—that she had a long lost sister, but now that long lost sister was dead?

"Earth to Sophie," Dex said, waving vigorously in front of her face. Sophie blinked rapidly as she was pulled out of her reverie abruptly.

"Are you all right?" Coreana whispered, her voice a shaky rasp.

"You're not sure if you're happy about Elodie passing away?" Fitz inquired quietly, taking her hand and tracing over her star-shaped scar.

Under regular circumstances, Sophie's hand would have tingled and her heart would have fluttered uncontrollably. But now, she was too numb both inside and outside to even feel anything but her own feelings.

Her heart didn't flutter—it hammered in her ears, though not because of Fitz. The gravity of the situation rammed into her once again, knocking the breath out of her as if it was really a solid object plunging into her heart and lungs.

Fitz was right—partially, at least.

She was contradicting herself—but because she wasn't feeling happy like she was supposed to. But she was _sure_ that she wasn't happy about Elodie winking out of this world.

Sure, Elodie had done countless evil, degenerate, and unthinkable things. But as Keefe said, she liked to see and if possible, bring out the good in everyone. She didn't believe not even once that Elodie had been incapable of virtuous, exemplary deeds.

And . . . Sophie liked to think that the two sisters would have wanted to see each other again before one of them died.

And now it was entirely impossible.

Lady Cadence would never see her long lost sister in her life, not even one small little glimpse.

And she would live the next decade, the next century, and the one after another, without the slightest knowledge that she had a deceased sister that had been part of the Neverseen.

"Seriously, if Foster keeps blanking out, we're all gonna get headaches waking her up for so many times." Keefe's half-annoyed, half-amused voice filtered through her ears, jerking her out of her thoughts.

Her head felt like it was still in a foggy daze as she forced a weak smile on her lips. It felt more like a grimace, though. And by the expressions on her friends' faces, she knew it was true.

"Sorry. Just . . . tired." She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than convince the others. Sophie shook away a few stray strands of hair obscuring her eyes and coerced herself to stand up, her legs wobbling slightly as she did so.

She pushed out one palm against the freezing wall to steady herself. This was impossible, but she had to persevere. Her friends were all counting on her, and here she was, brooding on the past. Time was slipping through their fingers, and anything could happen.

Sophie pulled her senses into focus. "All right, I'm fine now. Has Marella waken yet?"

She walked toward the Pyrokinetic, bending down to sweep a strand of golden hair from her surprisingly hot skin.

"It's like she's having a fever or something, but far worse," she murmured. Her fingers grazed Marella's pale forehead, expecting it to be ice cold, but lunging away when furnace hot heat spread to her fingers, nearly burning her.

"She doesn't have a fever," Iorgo corrected her. "A Pyrokinetic's body temperature is usually much higher than other elves."

Sophie stared sadly at the mess Marella had become. Her once lustrous blonde hair had become a large frizz and some strands had become black from the fire. Her right leg looked a little crippled—a thick, large, and long streak slashed from the top of her knee to the bottom of her ankle.

Sophie's fingers filled with a strange tingling sensation as she realised what exactly she was looking at.

_Marella's first burn as a Pyrokinetic._

She drew back slightly, a disgusted feeling creeping into her throat. She knew it was wrong to be disgusted, but looking at those burns, it creepily reminded her of the scary scars and horrifying gashes that Brant had on his face.

Speaking of Brant, where was he? Elodie had subtly mentioned that he was coming here soon . . . but how soon? Would they meet him just when they were here? Would he wreak havoc upon them? And was that when all hell would finally break loose?

And what about Adria's parents? Sophie stole a quick, secret glance at Adria. She didn't look too good. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled into a tight ponytail that stretched her skin slightly, making her look more intimidating than ever. But there was a cloudy conflict in her eyes, like she was thinking about something. She obviously hadn't been listening to any of their conversation since they entered her room.

"What do we do now?" Keefe asked. It had been a long time since jokes spouted out of his mouth, and Sophie knew he was doing it for her sake.

The sadness disappeared and was replaced with something Sophie felt way too often. But this time, it was stronger than ever, and it felt like she was drowning in Root Abyss.

A sense of hopelessness washed over her, making her feel more drained and weary than she'd ever been. The voice that slipped out of her mouth trembled, and dropped to a hushed whisper. And the three words that came tumbling out of her lips were enough to erase the hopeful looks on her friends' faces.

"I don't know."

There was an awkward, tense stretch of silence, so quiet Sophie could have heard a single pin drop.

Then Iorgo spoke up. His eyes held something fierce inside them as he faced Sophie.

"We've come so far as here, and we even managed to get rid of one of the leaders of the Neverseen," he half-shouted. "We can't just stop and give up here now. What about Perona?"

"What _about_ Perona?" Sophie asked coldly and emotionlessly, though her heart twisted a little at the familiar name.

Iorgo turned away from Sophie for a few long seconds. Sophie bated her breath, then let it go, an uncomfortable feeling stirring in her heart.

She let out another shaky breath.

"Iorgo, look at me," she said softly, ignoring how her weak voice seemed to fall apart with each syllable.

Iorgo turned around sluggishly, and his dampened blue eyes met Sophie's shiny brown ones expectantly, like he was waiting for her to say something.

Instantly, Sophie was brought back to the moment when Sora and Soreas had a fight.

Soreas and Sora had turned to her, and she hadn't been able to help them, not even say _anything._

But now, she was determined to change.

"I'll—no, _we'll_ try our best to rescue Perona. But if she still doesn't have a change of heart, then, I'm sorry. If her heart's not with us"—she bit the inside of her cheek hard as something lurched inside of her—"we really can't do anything."

Iorgo stared at her still. For a few moments, he didn't say anything. Sophie resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably on her feet, or avoid his gaze.

But she didn't.

She held her head up high and stared back defiantly.

Then after what seemed like an eternity, he opened his mouth.

"You're Sophie Foster. If you can't save everyone, I don't know who else can. I believe in you. And I'm very sure we all do too."

Sophie's heart gave a little jolt as all her friends, even Adria and Sam, proceed to nod heartily. She knew her confidence at the start of Project Neverblaze would wear sooner or later—it had always come to that. But now that she also had all her friends' reassurance, belief, and support, Sophie felt a hundred times stronger than she knew she really was. Kenric was counting on her. Estelle was counting on her. Her family and friends back at the Lost Cities were too.

The Neverseen _couldn't_ have their way.

"All right," she said decisively, squaring her shoulders in newfound determination, "let's wake Marella up, and release Jin. Adria, you must want to know your parents' whereabouts—and I'm sure these two know."

Adria nodded grimly, but there was a new light in her eyes that melted away the cloudy conflict that Sophie had seen before. And she couldn't be sure, but she could have sworn she saw it in each and every one of her friends too. And even though Sophie wasn't an Empath, she had a strong feeling that it was hope.

* * *

At first, Sadie just stood there like a sponge, soaking in the silence and shock that had settled over the fashion shop. Then after a long stretch of time, a coherent thought slipped into her mind, triggering her brain to work smoothly once again.

_What just happened?_

Her legs felt like they were made of lead as she dragged herself to one end of the cashier counter, picked up the golden shard, then pulled herself to the other end of the cashier counter and fished up the silver shard. Her actions were slow and moderate, her movements sluggish.

As Sadie stared at the two shards, she realised something different. The collision with each other must have cracked open the shards, leaving a thin, perfect opening slicing through each of them.

Sadie's excitement spiked up. Her breath came in short huffs and her heart palpitated at a wild ferocity as she wedged her thumbnail into the thin line that stretched in between the golden shard. After a few times of exerting her strength on the opening, the shard clicked open, its two halves spreading out flawlessly to reveal a small ball of paper that had been stuffed inside hastily. Next, she opened the silver shard, and retrieved another paper ball.

Sadie smoothed open the two crumpled pieces of parchment, and pronounced the words written neatly on each of the papers. The letters were small and compact to fit on the tiny space. On the golden shard's parchment, the letters were slightly slanted, but exerted strength and boldness.

_My dear Estelle, _

_Live forever in my heart. _

_I will take care of our suldreen._

_Fret not._

_-Madlen Lingua_

Sadie's eyes flew wide open, a wild and unthinkable theory forming in her head, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet. Instead, with her mind reeling, she read the other paper—the one that had been squeezed into the silver shard. The letters were scrawled in a messy cursive.

_My dear Madlen,_

_Stay forever in my heart._

_I will watch over our suldreen._

_Worry not._

_-Estelle Lundian_

A shocked feeling settled over Sadie again. She crumpled the two pieces of paper into the paper balls they were again, and slotted each of them into each of their respective places. She felt like she'd invaded Sophie's privacy. Sophie should have been the one to read it first. She must have not known the sheer importance of the amulet, because she even gave it to the Sencen boy.

And for some reason, Sophie was convinced that her biological mother had been the deceased Jolie Ruewen.

True, they did look very alike, but that was insignificant compared to the piece of crucial evidence Sadie was holding right now in her very hands.

And those hands were trembling uncontrollably as she slipped the golden shard on its chain and added the silver shard as well. The two pendant shards clinked together once, twice, sounding like wind chimes in the empty room, but they didn't glow like the golden shard once did. It was like they had given up hope to be together again.

* * *

**Nothing to say here...  
**

**For people who have not read Neverseen, please do not read the question because it includes spoilers for Neverseen.**

**Question: For people who have read Neverseen, why does almost no one seem to like Tam and Linh? I love them! I mean, I can see that their characters are still very raw and undeveloped, but come on, we've only known them for less than half a book. And not liking them because they mess up their ships is a totally ridiculous reason. And it's not their fault that they're not part of the original Keeper gang. I bet that most of you didn't like Fitz, Keefe, Dex, or Biana at first, but as the series progressed, you grew to love them. So please give Tam and Linh a chance, okay? **

**Calla is okay, and she is really awesome, but the thing about her is that I've read about her kind of people in too many books. She feels too generic, and when I read about her sacrifice to help the gnomes, I was just...meh. Sacrifices are just too...I don't know, predictable? Boring? I mean, it was really sad, and I enjoyed Calla, but I wish Shannon Messenger gave Calla a unique trait so I could distinguish her from other characters in other books.**

**What's your opinion on Tam, Linh, and Calla?**


	67. Chapter 68, Part One

**Hi guys! I bring you the first half of chapter 68! I dunno why but I seem to write really short chapters for Neverseen these days. Even Payback's A Nightmare was able to reach 4,000 words. But that does not mean that I am losing interest and inspiration for this story! I swear that this story is alive and kicking with ideas! (Like that plot twist last chapter. :P)**

**daringwolf2000: Haha, glad you're excited for this chapter! And thank the gods you like Tam, Linh, and Calla! I was worried that I would be one of the very few that actually like the twins! Thank you and hope you like this chapter! :)**

**Thank you to ClaryJace4ever for favouriting and following! **

**Word Count: 2,800 words. **

* * *

**Chapter 68, Part One**

"So where do we go?" asked Coreana, snapping her fingers. The ice prison melted into nothingness, the icy tendrils swirling into the hot air and vanishing. Jin stumbled forward, falling face-first onto the rocky ground in a mess of auburn waves.

Soreas lunged forward as fast as he could and grabbed her arm, pulling her toward him. He tucked her hair behind her ears, staring at his sister with a certain kind of sadness.

"Oh, Jin," he whispered, so softly that Sophie almost didn't catch some of the words. "What have you become?"

Sophie felt like asking the same question to Marella. The girl was still slumped on the floor, lifeless as a rag doll. A sense of overwhelming pity washed over her, and she bent down, wrapping her arms around her waist to bring Marella up.

"Find my parents," Adria said quietly. Her ice blue eyes held a certain cloudiness in them. "They're still imprisoned somewhere in this base." She closed her eyes. "Somehow, I can feel them."

"Sophie, can you track Adria's parent's thoughts?" Fitz inquired, turning to her questioningly.

"I don't know how they sound like. And there are so many people here that I don't know, they could be anybody. If Adria could tell me somehow, maybe it would be easier."

Sophie furrowed her eyebrows together, deep in thought.

Adria shook her head with an immense sadness. "I can't remember how they sound like, or look like. But I just know that they're out here _somewhere."_

"Then you could transmit something to trigger a reaction from them?" Fitz prodded Sophie, who was frozen to the spot, plunged in her own thoughts.

The answer was erupting from her lips before she even realised so. "I think I know what to transmit." She didn't know where or how she found the answer. But it probably was another implanted memory, waiting for a keyword for it to resurface.

Adria stared at her with wide eyes. "What?"

"Sorry," she told her as she rushed past her, the gears in her mind reeling as fast as how quickly her heart was palpitating right now. "We need to be in the open, or else not everyone would hear it—"

"And why does everybody need to hear it?" Keefe whispered and shouted at the same time, hot on her heels. "And um, wouldn't that sort of expose the fact that Sophie Foster and her friends are prowling around the Neverseen base right now?"

Sophie turned back to look at them, stopping to catch her breath. "Exactly. We need everyone to know that Adria Lentz very much exists and is alive."

Her fingers gripped Marella a little tighter, and that was when Marella's arm flared up.

Sophie yelled in pain, releasing her hold on Marella. Both of them tumbled to the ground. And that was when she realised that Marella's hair was alight with bright, flickering flames.

She scrambled back, knocking into Biana.

"Don't move!" Mira commanded sharply, conjuring a humongous water sphere into her right hand and hurling it viciously at Marella's head, instantly extinguishing the fire.

Sophie exhaled a breath, watching Marella's hair drip with water.

"I think we'd have enough fire for the day," whispered Dex, his breath coming out in short huffs.

"I couldn't agree with you any greater," Coreana agreed, her perfect face now ashen pale. She looked the most shaken as she twirled a strand of ash blonde hair around her trembling fingers.

"Random question out of the blue," Biana said, "but where's Sora? Didn't I call for her, back at the study? She should have arrived by then, but she's still missing in action."

Sophie looked around frantically. "I don't know. Soreas and I were just discussing about it just now. I think maybe Elwin held her back or something—?"

A familiar, pealing laugh sounded behind them.

"Not even Elwin can hold me back, Sophie. You all should have already known by now."

Sophie whirled around to see a grinning Sora, her arms crossed against her chest. Behind her, the ground had been split into half, protruding out scarily.

"Oh my gosh, Sora , you scared me." Soreas's hand flew to his chest, near the area where his heart was. "What have you done?"

Sora shrugged, her pale aquamarine eyes lighting up mischievously as she raised a finger casually. A hooded figure rose out of the gigantic crack in the ground.

A very familiar figure.

Sophie gaped at Perona. "You didn't!"

Sora gazed back confidently at her. "Yes, I did. Anyway, she totally deserved it."

"How did you even find her?" Iorgo asked. His voice was controlled and even, but Sophie knew he was itching to run over to Perona's side right now.

Sora glanced at the Collective member sharply. "It was honestly just by chance, actually. She and a few other Neverseen members were staring at a destroyed room." She switched her gaze to Marella. _"She _did that, I suppose."

Her voice had turned dark and bitter, and Sophie remembered that Marella was the one who had bound her to a coma. But she had suffered because she had taken the blow for _Sophie._

"I'm sorry," she said.

Sora frowned. "Whatever for?"

Dex elbowed her hard in the shin, and Sophie sighed. "Never mind, it's nothing you should worry about anymore. I'm just being wo—"

"Stupid?" Biana supplied.

She threw a death glare at her friend, who stuck her tongue out.

"Anyway." Sora's lips twitched. "What happened."

"Apparently, Elodie is dead," Sam told her.

Something in her expression changed. She was probably remembering all the horrible things that Elodie had done to her.

Like how Elodie had so easily torn her and her twin sister apart. Made them sworn enemies. And now that same woman was erased from existence. Like she'd never been in this world before.

"This must be a freaking joke," she rasped, clutching on to the fabric of her tunic. "Elodie—not her. She's not that weak. She couldn't be. Not with one little fire."

"Thing is, Elodie's not a Pyrokinetic," Albie said. "She couldn't survive fires like Brant does. And do you _really _expect her to mesmerize the flames away from her?"

Sora turned away from him, squaring her shoulders and raising her head stubbornly. "Well, I refuse to believe it. I'm not letting my guard down. Just saying."

"Well, we aren't too," said Adria grimly. "Elodie was just a little pain in the head. There are still many challenges to come."

Sora nodded her head. "True. So what do I do with her?" she pointed to Perona, who was still floating unconsciously in the air. "And wow, I just noticed that you managed to knock my little sister unconscious too. Awesome."

They all ignored the last comment.

"Slap her in the face," Biana suggested. "Hard."

"Dunk her in a pool of mud," decided Albie. "Or no. Maybe dunk her in the Root Abyss too."

"Let her freeze in Antarctica forever and beyond," Coreana added. "I could do that, you know."

"No, no, and no," Keefe shouted. "I suggest that we make her visit Keefe's Top Ten Most Stinkiest Places!"

But it was Mira who came up with the most desirable and feasible solution.

"There's a high possibility that Perona knows where Adria's parents are being held," she said. "You just have to make her reveal the location to us, you know."

Keefe rubbed his hands together. "Are you implying what I'm implying?"

Mira shrugged. "You know, what the Collective does to you, Soreas and Sora."

By the expressions on the Hekses' faces, they knew exactly what Mira was saying. And so did Sophie. But her heart twanged when she looked at Perona, floating limply in the air.

How was she going to stand _torturing_ someone?

It seemed that her friends had the same idea, because Dex asked, disgusted, "Torture? Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Fitz added. "That's totally gory." He shuddered, rubbing his arms vigorously.

"Agreed," Biana murmured, probably envisioning the torture scene right then.

Even Keefe looked slightly sick at the idea. "I thought you meant something . . . lighter."

Mira leant closer to them. "What needs to be done, needs to be done. I'm very sorry, but that's the way we Black Swan members were trained. And don't think we're emotionless, okay? You're not the only ones that are feeling bad too! But we have to do this. For everyone."

"Okay," said Sophie, drawing in a deep breath to calm herself down. Her friends seemed to be trying to do the same as they headed back into Adria's room. It was empty, but somehow Sophie had the strange feeling that someone was watching them.

The others must have sensed it too, because Soreas and Sora turned their heads sharply, pinpointing on an empty space.

Before Sophie could even process what was going on, Soreas vanished into thin air. A thin breeze rippled at her hair sharply, making her gasp. In a split second, Soreas reappeared at the empty spot, holding something that was seemingly invisible.

"What is it?" Sora said, her body poised in battle stance.

"It's okay," he said softly. A shade of blue fur materialized in his hands. "It's just this . . . little imp."

"It could be dangerous."

"No!" Sophie shouted, a little too loudly, then took in a sharp breath, speaking in a softer voice this time. "I mean, it's not dangerous. It's Iggy. My pet imp."

Sora relaxed a little, though she still eyed Iggy warily. "Why is he here?"

"I think he followed us here." Sophie stretched out her hands for Iggy to perch on them. "He always does that."

"Well, I have no doubt that he would bring anything but trouble," said Iorgo, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Imps are nothing but trouble, as everyone knows."

"He _is_ trouble," agreed Sophie grudgingly. "But he can be a real sweetie. Well, sometimes."

"And he's so cute!" Biana gushed loudly, clasping her hands together and staring at Iggy in affection.

Soreas rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Whatever. Just don't let it get in our way."

_I can't promise that._ Sophie grinned inwardly as she gazed shrewdly at Iggy, the picture of innocence as he nuzzled next to Sophie's hair.

Sora flicked her finger, and Perona came crashing down onto the ground. Sophie winced, shutting her eyes tightly when the horrifying, icky thud sounded louder than she would have liked it to be.

"Alright," Albie muttered, a certain tone of finality in his voice as he clapped his hands together loudly, making Sophie jump, goosebumps dimpling her lower arms. Ten extra hands sprouted out from the ground with an explosion of cherry blossoms and held Perona into place firmly. "Let's wake her up."

Mira raised her arms high up, producing bubbles filled with a dark substance that gathered together closely. When the bubbles got into contact with one another, they popped, releasing the dark substance that turned out to be blackish-grey storm clouds. They hovered menacingly over Perona as they fizzled with unnaturally bright blue electricity.

She snapped her fingers, and a thick, jagged, and bright fork of lightning zapped down into Perona's right calf.

Sophie winced as she shielded her eyes from the brightness. There was a faint smell of putrid burning flesh that wafted in the air, causing her to plug her nose.

She felt slightly sick as she stared at Perona's burn. Raw, red, and deep.

All of a sudden, a high-pitched, piercing, and agony-filled scream erupted from Perona's pale lips. She opened her eyes, light greyish blue eyes that seemed to stare straight into blank space.

"Perona," Iorgo breathed, taking a step forward to reach out to his partner, but Sam held him back, his grip surprisingly strong as Iorgo struggled to break free but to no avail.

"We still have a lot of work to do, Sir Autre," he lisped so softly that Sophie didn't really catch it when he first spoke. "Dria?"

Adria was faster than Mira's lightning bolt, and in a semi split second she had the sharp tip of her boot pressed up against Perona's throat.

Sophie's hands flew to her mouth in utter shock. Sure, she'd had her own fair share of torture when she and Dex had been kidnapped by the Neverseen a year ago, but they were practically suffocating her. Was this what the Collective did to Sora and Soreas?

Perona coughed and hacked and choked, but Adria didn't release her grip, not even in the slightest bit.

"Adria," Albie said quietly, tapping her shoulder warningly. "She's hyperventilating. If you don't loosen your hold, she'll soon pass out due to lack of oxygen."

"Fine." Adria released her boot from Perona's throat, but dug into her shoulder instead. When Perona was busy gasping for air, she continued speaking. "Do you know where my parents are being held at?"

Perona muttered something incoherent, then choked on her voice.

Adria dug harder into her shoulder. "What did you say?"

Perona took a sharp, pain-filled breath. When she spoke, her voice was reduced to a mere rasp, but her meaning was clear.

"I. Won't. Tell. You."

Despite the pain she was experiencing, Perona's lips curved up slightly in smugness.

Adria growled, an animal sound that scared Sophie a little. "Fine by me, then."

She kicked Perona in the gut with hard force.

"Tell me."

"No."

It became a continuous, never-ending cycle. Kick, ask, no. Kick, ask, no. Kick, ask, no. It went that way over and over again like a broken record until Fitz's mental voice entered Sophie's head, nearly startling her.

_Sorry, _he apologised when she jumped in shock, squealing softly. _But this is going nowhere, and I had a better plan._

_What? _she asked dubiously.

_Perona is distracted, and she's probably thinking the answer she won't tell us. So, being Telepaths and all . . . _

_You want us to probe her mind, _Sophie finished his sentence for him.

_Yeah, that's it. I know we're probably breaking the Telepathy rules now, but . . ._

_This is no time for rules,_ Sophie agreed reluctantly. _We have to grab hold of this chance right now—it's now or never. _

She twined her fingers together with Fitz's, leaning against him like he was the only thing left to hold on in the whole universe.

_Ready? _ She asked him, though she was feeling nervous herself.

This was their ultimate chance to get the answers they needed. And she wasn't going to let it to run away.

And _she_ wasn't going to run away either.

Fitz flashed her a movie-star worthy smile. _As ready as I'll ever be._

The necklace that Sophie had given him glinted brightly, seeming to shine a dazzling, encouraging spotlight into Sophie's heart. So, taking a final deep breath, Sophie and Fitz plunged into Perona's mind.

Perona's mind was in one word, messy. Little scraps of thoughts flew into her mind at the speed of light, disabling Sophie to catch them, and as a result causing her to feel dizzy.

But she went against all her instincts and ventured through the vortex with Fitz, until they were at the very epicenter of it. There was a small blot of darkness and emptiness. She stood in the emptiness, until Perona's mental voice blew into her head, like sending her toward a darker doom filled with darker secrets.

_I must not tell them two things._

_One, where Adria's parents are located—at the place where we are holding Gethen right now._

_Two, I must not tell them that Sophie's parents are Madlen Lingua and Estelle Lundian. _

* * *

Sophie was pulled out of Perona's mind, a little shakier than usual, but that was probably because she herself was shaking physically. She slumped against Fitz, who held her gently but firmly. But he was shocked too.

"It was them?" she whispered, staring into blank space listlessly. "All along?"

_It all makes sense now._

Estelle staring intensely at her when she first saw her.

Madlen giving her the amulet.

Estelle's kindness and affection to her.

Madlen persistently trying to teach her to mimic.

Estelle's sudden mood changes, tension, and unsureness when around her.

Madlen was less obvious as he was always chastising her and scorning her, but now that Sophie saw the light at the end of the tunnel, everything seemed to click together.

Estelle and Madlen were her biological parents.

But she'd never get to meet the two of them together as their daughter ever again.

Her mind was spinning too fast to process everything, and it was like she was drifting pointlessly in a drugged delirium. She could hear faint muffled voices around her and the feeling of Fitz's strong arms around her, but other than that it was nothing but sheer shock and empty, empty silence.

* * *

**Question of the chapter: What is your opinion on (you can choose one of them)  
**

**1) Sora**

**2) Soreas**

**3) Iorgo**

**4) Mira?**

**Answer of the chapter: Well, I love them all, because I created them. But if you really want, I can point out their characters. Sora is stubborn, strong, confident, and cheery. Soreas can be dark and broody at times, but he is also sometimes sarcastic, and he loves Sora a lot, and yes, even Jin. Iorgo is more of the common-sense type like Mira, and he cares about Perona very much. Mira, as I said, is focused a lot on sharp, critical thinking and logic. And she does not trust people easily. You'll find out more about her and Albie's past in the further chapters.**


	68. Chapter 68, Part Two

**Hi guys! Sorry for not updating for so long. I know you're tired of the same reason over and over again, but it's true: secondary school really is hectic. I bet none of you are that busy now. But oh well, I'm a Singaporean and I'm proud of it, what can I do?**

**And I finally managed to break the low word count I've been maintaining for the past few chapters! This half-chapter has 5,279 words, but it was accumulated over little periods of time I managed to clear for writing. And besides school, we've moved to my grandparents' house to renovate our old house , and it's really busy-thank goodness the moving is done now. I can't wait to see how my new home would look like!**

**Um, yeah, before I forget, I am currently fixing an error-so if you are a new innocent reader about to taste my horrifying writing, um, good luck when you find that there's a chapter 18 missing between chapter 17 and chapter 19. I don't have the time to fix it all at one time, because there are so many chapters (THIS STORY IS ONE YEAR OLD AND STILL GOING), so I'll probably fix it when I have more time, and I'll let y'all know.**

**daringwolf2000: Thanks and hope you like this, um, second part of the chapter! (The half-chapters are kinda annoying and awkward, but I have no choice.)**

**Nena: Thank you so very much! Sorry for not updating sooner. Hope you like this chapter! :))**

**A person: Lol, I love your opinions. And IKR, Calla is too nice. Sometimes she just irks me. Thank you and hope you like this chapter! :)**

**Guest: Yup, they would be cute together.**

**twinkletoestbh: Okay first, thanks for the explosion of reviews! The added bonus was that they were SO hilarious. I loved reading them and thank you so much for the encouragement and kind words you've given me! They really made my day. :)**

* * *

**Chapter 68, Part Two  
**

"Foster?"

A vigorous shaking of Sophie's shoulders pulled her out of her unconsciousness. She groaned softly, rolling to the other side of her, mumbling an incoherent "go away".

The familiar voice sounded amused this time. "Come on, Foster. We don't have all day to tend to your sleeping beauty needs."

There was a slight rustling of fabrics as someone's footsteps neared. Sophie squeezed her eyelids shut tighter, shying away, as though she could escape somehow. But her body felt like it was made of lead, and she was too late. The footsteps caught up with her, and someone pulled off the fabric that had been wrapped around her face to cover up her eyes.

Light danced across her eyes, and Sophie shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a better position that would block the light from entering her pupils. Why was it that even though she closed her eyes and squeezed them so tight, she could still sense light?

"Sophie?" A heavily accented voice seeped into her ears. Something soft and warm enveloped her, moving her into a much comfortable position. Sophie sighed softly, cuddling into the unknown person's arms. "Keefe told me you were awake, but you didn't want to open your eyes."

Another voice spoke, one that sounded a little frustrated. "Sophie, come on. Stop being lazy, we need you. Jin has woken up, and we can't figure her out!"

Inside, Sophie frowned at the name. _Jin._ Soreas and Sora's younger sister. Was that supposed to be important somehow? Oh, whatever, she was tired.

And that was exactly what she mumbled.

A chorus of exasperated sighs rang out, making Sophie's head ache. There was a murmured buzz of heated debate and discussion that she did her best to try and block out. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the first voice that she had heard said with a tone of voice that she couldn't quite name, "Okay, you know what? Screw this, guys. And, um, don't hate me for doing this. Same to you, Foster?"

"Wha—" began one of the other voices, but was cut short when something tender and slightly moist touched Sophie's lips gently. Sophie jerked her eyes open to find a pair of gleaming ice blue eyes staring back down at her. And they were very, very close.

She gasped, scooting her body back a few inches and sat up on the cold hard ground. The disturbing feeling of his lips on her still tingled as she stared at Keefe, then Dex, then Fitz, then Biana.

And reverted her stare back to Keefe.

Biana looked shocked, miffed, and slight jealousy flashed in her teal eyes as she asked quietly, her voice so deadly soft that Sophie could have heard a pin drop, "What in the world was that just now?"

Keefe also looked a little dazed as he stumbled back a few steps, crashing into Dex, his fingers flying to his lips.

"Yeah, Keefe," Fitz said, his facial features twisted into a frown. "What was that?"

Dex just stared into empty space, his mouth hanging open so wide that a fly could have flown into it.

The five of them just stayed that way for a few long awkward and silent moments before Sophie decided to break the silence. "What happened?"

When nobody answered, she realised her mistake, and quickly added, "I meant not with the—um, ki—uh, you know what I mean—but when I fell unconscious. What was that all about?"

Even though they all didn't show any verbal signs of relief, Sophie could somehow sense it ripple through her friends. Fitz was the first one to speak up, and by the secret glance that he gave Sophie, she knew he was confused.

"You don't remember?" he whispered, taking a few steps closer to Sophie and forcing her to look him in the eye.

Sophie was about to shake her head when a few discarded memories started rushing into her mind like a long forgotten waterfall. She gaped at Fitz, while he just nodded sadly.

"Your parents, Sophie," he said quietly, a sad quality flowing into his voice. "I can't believe that they're . . . them."

Sophie looked down at the grey floor, which was as dull as how she felt right now.

Her parents. Her biological parents. Estelle and Madlen. It felt too unbelievable to be true. And the thing was, Sophie had known from the start that the last thing that she wanted to find out was who her real parents were. It could be partly because she didn't want to know how to deal with both Grady and Edaline and her biological parents, or it could also be partly because she already had so many things in the world to take care of—whoever would want another heavy burden piled up onto their shoulders?

And the other thing was, _Estelle._

She was dead.

Murdered by Sophie, her own daughter.

And she didn't even know that she was her mother.

That made Sophie feel even worse than what she had felt before. Madlen and Estelle didn't deserve her. Well, at least that was what she believed. The two of them had done so much, sacrificed so much just to train her to face off the Neverseen and hone her skills. And what had she done?

Killed off Estelle. Torn off a perfectly good loving couple. Just like what she'd done with Kenric and Oralie.

Like she said, she didn't deserve them at all. And truth to be told, whoever she was close to had been dragged into danger at least once, or forced to resort to drastic measures to protect her and keep her safe.

"Sophie," said Dex, shaking her shoulder gently. "You okay there?"

She snapped out of her reverie. "I'm fine. I—it's just—" To her horror, her voice cracked, and tears started to pool up in her eyes. Her friends stared at her with true concern as she blinked away her tears furiously, drawing in several deep breaths. "I feel like I don't deserve all of you sometimes."

"What?" Biana's loud, shocked voice rang out in the small room. "But why?"

"Whoever that comes near me always gets hurt!" shouted Sophie, her voice going even hoarser. She cleared her throat a good many times before she continued, softer this time, "but you all still stick to me, care about me, despite whatever you have to sacrifice. I could have come here on my own to stop the Neverseen. You could have stayed safe and sound back at your homes in the Lost Cities, with your families. And I know you miss them very much—I do to. But the thing is, I have to do this. You don't have to. But nevertheless, you still insist on coming with me." Sophie's voice hitched at the last sentence, and inside she cursed before whispering, "So, yeah. Even though I don't deserve all of you, thanks either way."

Biana wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye. "Oh, Sophie," she breathed. "Don't ever think that you don't deserve us. We all love you very much. Everybody deserves to be loved, okay?"

She pulled her in for a hug, and Dex and Fitz joined in. After a while, Keefe stopped his hesitation and wrapped his arms around them awkwardly, avoiding Sophie's eye.

"Okay, so," said Sophie, pulling back and taking in a breath to tranquilise herself a little. "Where am I, and what happened after I passed out? What's all this about Jin waking up? And where are the others?"

Fitz sighed. It was a weary sigh, mixed with several other emotions that Sophie couldn't put a name to. "Well, it's a rather long story, and I'm afraid we don't have time. We have to go—now—and we'll tell you the whole thing while we walk."

_It must be serious,_ thought Sophie with a grim note, and nodded solemnly, following her friends out of the room. She avoided Keefe, and when he glanced at her, trying to catch her eye, she purposely stared straight ahead. She still couldn't believe that he _kissed_ her. Did he really _like_ her? No, it was probably to give Sophie a good shock for her to wake up . . . but still, did he have to resort to such methods?

Biana skidded to a stop at the corridor. Six hooded Neverseen figures stood menacingly in their way, holding glinting silver melders in their hands.

"We don't have time for this," she hissed, vanishing into thin air. After a few tense moments, all the melders were knocked out of the Neverseen's hands, clattering loudly to the floor.

"Sophie, faster before they recover," Fitz urged her.

Sophie bit the inside of her cheek, and thought of all the moments when Stina or her human classmates scorned her. The part where Bronte said that she had been malfunctioning. The moment where Fitz had told her straight to the face that she was _damaged._

The anger, rage, and injustice swirled wildly in her, and with a grunt, she pushed them out toward the Neverseen figures. They fell to the ground almost immediately, writhing in agony.

"Quick, let's go," said Dex hurriedly, and they rushed past the fallen Neverseen members, breaking into a fast sprint down the corridor. Biana made them all invisible, and they held on to each other's hands tightly. Unfortunately, there was no choice but to hold Keefe's hand, and she resisted the urge not to squirm, though she knew that he could sense his jumpy emotions anyway.

_So what happened?_ Sophie reached out to Fitz's mind.

_After you fell unconscious, everyone was just at a loss of what to do. Eventually we reached a consensus to let Adria and company to go and find Adria's parents, while we stay back and look after you, since we were already holding Jin and Marella. And that was when Jin decided to wake up._

_Marella didn't wake up?_ Sophie asked, remembering the time when Marella's arm twitched, and the other time where Marella's hair caught fire. She should have woken up by now . . . the worry clouded her mind, causing her thoughts to become slightly fuzzed.

_Woah, you're quite worried about her, _Fitz said as they made a sharp turn to the left. _And no. Strangely, she didn't. But after Jin woke up, she got up and ran out without a word. And now, she's out on the prowl, goodness knows where—we're quite afraid about what she might be up to._

Sophie frowned, staring off in the distance as they took a turn to the right again. _So where are we going right now?_

_To find the others, _Fitz replied. _They said that when you wake up, you should track Adria's parents down—they're at where Gethen is being held too, right?_

_That was what we were going to do in the first place, _Sophie said. _We just got off the right track. And I don't understand why the Neverseen are holding Gethen captive. Isn't he one of them?_

_That's what I don't know too, _Fitz transmitted back to her. _I guess they're afraid of something._

_But what? Whatever could they be afraid of?_

She didn't hear Fitz's answer, as they had just stopped in front of a wall. A narrow gap that was just wide enough to squeeze in and hide ran down right in front of them. Biana made all of them reappear, making Sophie blink in surprise. Dex knocked on the wall, and the crack widened, creating several hairline fissures that spread across scarily.

"Wow, talk about a scene in human horror movie," muttered Keefe, staring at the cracks with a half-frightened, half-excited look. "You'd think that they'd been learning from the Neverseen."

Sophie shot him a death glare, trying to block out the curious thoughts in her mind, that he'd actually watched a human movie. Instead she asked her friends, "What's going on and what is this?"

She studied the cracks, squinting, then leveled her eyes to the darkness-filled hollow, but the blackness swallowed everything that was within it. "Did Sora make this?"

She rapped on the wall, and more cracks spread across. But Sophie was slightly unnerved by the hollow sound it gave out as she did so—but there was definitely a room inside there, so it must had some empty space within it. There was nothing for her to be frightened about—Adria and the others would probably come back to this place for them.

"No, it was Adria," corrected Biana, relaxing Sophie's nerves, but she suddenly had the queer feeling that someone was watching them. "But she said that it was a long time ago when she created this hiding spot for herself, when she had needed time to think by her own. When she felt better and went out of here, she'd use her terrakinesis to make the wall good as new, and bring the place back to life when she was feeling awful again."

"No time to lose," said Fitz, cutting in immediately after Biana had uttered her last syllable, slipping into the gap before Sophie could even make a reaction. His shadow was the last thing Sophie saw before he was completely consumed him—but she could have sworn that she saw a glimpse of another, but fainter shadow dance across quickly before fading after him.

She shook her head, trying to dispel the weariness and tiredness buzzing around her body—that was probably why she was seeing things that weren't really happening in the first place.

Deftly ignoring the niggling little warning voice shouting feebly in her head, Sophie glanced back at Keefe, Dex, and Biana, then looked back at the cracks in the wall, and the intimidating, menacing shadiness, and took in a deep, calming breath.

"Okay," she said. "Let's do th—"

A terrified scream that sounded horribly like Fitz's erupted from somewhere inside the wall, plunging Sophie in a memory that replayed itself over and over again in slow motion.

The mysterious, ominous hollow sound that the wall gave out.

The strange blackness that seemed to swallow everything up.

The swift, nimble shadow that danced across the floor before sweeping into the gap like it was being vacuumed into it. Like it belonged to nobody.

Or, perhaps, nobody that she could _see._

Sophie's quick gaze flicked over to the gap again, the tenebrosity seeming more sinister ad baleful-looking than ever, now that they had an idea of what horrors it could do.

Just then, Fitz's agonised, piercing scream rang through the air once again, and Sophie and her friends locked gazes with one another, seeming to reach a consensus.

Before she could slip in, a small object thudded against the middle of her collarbones, startling her.

Sophie grabbled around before closing her fingers on a very familiar item that she had admittedly missed a lot.

The protection amulet that Madlen had given her. However, Sophie's fingers stopped short when she caught sight of the new shard as it gleamed a shiny silver quality as it tinkled against the original golden shard. Without really knowing what she was doing, Sophie held one shard each in her separate hand—the golden piece in her left, and the silver one in her right—and pieced them together, like a broken heart fixed back to normal.

It made a strange fizzling sound, then joined together, suddenly glowing brightly—so bright that when Sophie covered it up with layers and layers of thick fabric, it still shone with the same brightness.

Her friends stared at her in wonder and awe. Sophie felt a little awkward as she bit her lip, and asked nervously, "What?"

Queerly, Biana's eyes were shining, and Sophie could see the golden-silver light reflected in her teal eyes—and in everyone else's too—as she said, "Sophie, you're _glowing."_

Sophie waived the statement away, a little irritated. "I'm not glowing, it's the amulet that is."

"No, Biana's right, Foster," said Keefe, his voice more entranced-sounding than Sophie had ever heard. "Not literally, but still."

Sophie glanced at herself through Keefe's ice blue eyes, and finally she could see what her friends were talking about. It may have been just the strange light, but her back seemed straighter, her facial features sharper and more defined and prominent, her brown eyes radiating strength and warmth, her eyebrows pressed together confidently and her lips spreading into a determined and radiant line. Her blonde hair—which had already almost touched her shoulders—seemed more luscious and shiny—floating in what seemed like a small mystical breeze—and her shoulders were squared up.

"All right," she said, tearing her eyes away from Keefe's—"Let's go and confront whatever's in there."

"I just hope we don't die," grumbled Dex.

"Do I get a kiss for good luck, Foster?" asked Keefe, winking at her and earning a stiff stare from Biana.

For the first time, Sophie was able to contain her blush. "Cheek only," she managed to mumble after a long moment of awkward hesitation.

Slowly, reluctantly, she touched her lips with Keefe's warm cheek for a split second before pulling back quickly, and let Keefe do the same.

The four friends hugged and embraced each other tightly but quickly.

"Y'know, this might be the last time we see each other," Biana muttered, a tinge of sadness clouding her voice.

"No need to get all sappy, Biana," Dex mumbled, making Biana flush. "We're already feeling jittery enough."

Sophie took one step forward, steeling her nerves as she curled her hands into tight fists. "Everyone ready?"

Keefe smirked. "Let's rescue our dear boy and kick some Neverseen butt!"

At the tensed count of three, they charged, rushing into the gap. The glowing light from Sophie's pendant lit the way, scaring away a little of the absolute gloom.

The passageway suddenly expanded into a large, wide cave-sized room, but the extra space seemed to have gathered the most shadow and darkness and everything dark.

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, her brow twitching as the amulet on her chest warmed. She could sense that the cramped room had gathered a lot of people, and she was half-frightened to whether all of them except Fitz were Neverseen.

"Show yourselves!" she shouted, her voice ringing out strong and steady, surprising even herself. She held out the glowing amulet, an attempt to lighten up the place, but gasped and released her grasp when shadows leapt up to wrap around the heart-shaped pendant, not seeming at all afraid of the light that should have eradicated them.

Dex noticed, and took in a sharp breath, whispering, "It's a Shade."

"What's a Shade?" Sophie shouted in confusion, but she had already guessed as the shadows from the room suddenly ripped away from their places and gathered bit by bit into one corner, the squirmy blackness twisting and twirling.

The darkness was replaced by light, and when the last shadows fell, four figures were standing tall right in front of them. On the ground, a gagged Fitz was writhing in agony on the ground.

Sophie's throat constricted, a huge lump forming as she stared at the centre figure. Dex also backed away fearfully, biting his lip as he reached for Sophie's hand.

Sophie laced her fingers with his thankfully, the both of them squeezing each other's hands for strength and support.

Brant's familiar crooked smile taunted Sophie as he snapped his fingers, conjuring up neon-yellow flames in his hand. She tried not to stare at them flicker dangerously as he rasped in that dreadful voice.

"Sophie Foster," he jeered, leering at them mockingly. "We meet again. Last time, I had to submit to your questioning in order to escape. But this time, I'll be the one controlling the game." He curled his fingers slightly, causing the Everblaze to grow bigger and brighter in his remaining hand. "Meet my fellow members of _our_ Collective."

Sophie's brown eyes darted around frantically from one figure to another. There was a man, with jet-black hair hanging long before his dark blue eyes, whose dancing shadow she recognised. A woman, whose face was hidden by the shadows of her hood. Her feet were floating a few inches off the ground as she surveyed them with a dangerous predatory gaze. And the last figure, the one that Sophie knew she should have guessed that she would be there.

Jin flipped her auburn hair over her shoulder and gave Sophie her best death stare. Sophie, suddenly needing something more than Dex's hand, gripped her glowing amulet tightly, drawing strength from the calming action and barricading her mind as much as she could—even though she knew it was useless. Jin had always been able to enter her mind, and Sophie knew that this time, she wouldn't hold back.

"Nice accessory you have there, Sophie," Brant laughed, looking at the amulet with the same look that had sent chills down Sophie's spine. "If you really think that pathetic-looking thing will help you defeat us, you're dead wrong. After all, what strength could come from a pendant that your biological parents—whom one of them is already dead—gave you?"

Rage-fire burned in Sophie's stomach as the sickening realisation dawned onto her. "You," she said through gritted teeth. "You knew all along. That my parents were Estelle and Madlen."

Jin shrugged. "Who didn't? Oh right, it's not like they tell you the truth you deserve." Her dark aquamarine eyes taunted Sophie creepily as she continued, "But that can be changed."

The Shade stepped forward, his shadow dancing around the room gracefully like how an ice-skater would have done. "In less than thirty minutes, an army of ogres would breach Eternalia's front lines and oppose on the Lost Cities."

The woman floated higher off the ground, spinning slowly as she watched them with her unseen eyes. "If you choose to surrender and join us, we will tell the ogres to retreat back, and we promise you, all of your loved ones will be the last ones to be hurt."

"So, Sophie?" Brant asked, as Sophie's mind started spinning with all the different possibilities this could ensue. "What do you think of this generous offer?"

_Sophie, don't listen to them! _Fitz transmitted to her. _It's a trap._

Sophie took in a sharp breath, then jabbed a finger at the four Neverseen leaders. "I decline the offer! Even if my loved ones are going to be the last ones to get hurt, it still means you're going to attack everyone in the Lost Cities."

All at once, the atmosphere in the small, cramped cave seemed to darken, and Jin locked eyes with Brant, the Shade, and the woman, seeming to have a heated telepathic debate among them. While they were distracted, Biana seized the opportunity and vanished into thin air, tugging at the knotted ropes trapping Fitz.

In the corner of her eye, Sophie could see the Neverseen woman glance secretly toward the direction of Biana and Fitz, and panicked.

"Biana, watch out!" she shouted loudly, pointing at the Neverseen woman. She cursed when everyone turned to look at her, including the Neverseen members—she should have transmitted to Biana.

Despite the warning, the woman proceeded to splay her fingers toward Biana. White ghost-like substances escaped from the pads of the tips of her fingers, zooming at an impossible speed toward an invisible target.

Biana reappeared, managing to dodge one of the ghosts before another hit her from behind. It floated through her torso, and flew back peacefully into the woman's fingers with the others.

Biana gasped soundlessly, her mouth agape as she fell to her knees, her small hands catching herself just in time before she fell face-flat onto the ground. Her eyes were glassy but unfocused as she stared straight ahead, seeming to be stunned.

"What did you do to her?" Sophie breathed, staring at her friend as Fitz let out another guttural scream, shaking from both the sight of his sister and the sizzling hot and painful burn Brant had just added to his left arm.

The woman let out an unnatural, dark laugh as she landed on the ground with two feet elegantly. "A Hollower can take on the form of a gas, and hollow out the positivity in a person. Don't worry, she's not dead. She just doesn't feel like fighting anymore."

As she said that, Biana slumped onto the ground, her eyelids fluttering as she mumbled something incoherent.

"What?" Sophie said, straining to hear her as her heart thumped in horror. A Hollower . . . she had never heard of that ability before, but if it was that fatal and powerful, why didn't the Council ever pay attention and put the Hollowers under close watch like they did with the Inflictors and Mesmers? Their ability was equal terrifying and dangerous.

"Hollower?" Keefe echoed. "Funny. Did you make that up yourself? Because none of us have heard of that ability ever before."

If even Keefe hadn't heard of it, Sophie thought, this woman must be the only elf that ever possessed this Hollower ability, and she must be an unregistered elf. Of _course._

The Hollower bristled slightly, evidently flustered. "Of course _not._ Did you not see what happened to your Vacker friend? Or do you need another demonstration? Do _you_ want to volunteer?" she snapped, pointing her finger at Keefe angrily.

A hint of fear flashed in Keefe's eyes, something Sophie rarely saw. He held his hands up, a little defensively. "Never mind, I was just asking. Chill."

A thought suddenly popped up in Sophie's mind. "Wait. Where are Soreas, Sora, Adria, Coreana, and the others?"

"Oh yeah," exclaimed Dex, his eyebrows scrunched together in sudden realisation and confusion. "I thought they told us to come here? So where . . ."

His voice trailed off as the sudden realisation dawned on them.

"You guys," Keefe shouted. "What did you do to them?"

"We're innocent," said Jin calmly. "Though we know you'd think that we're lying. But yes, we _are_ lying. But of course, you can't get into my mind. Or maybe you could, with your Telepathy partner." She nodded her head toward Fitz. "But of course, he's not really available right now." She shrugged. "The odds aren't really in your favour right now, Sophie. What are you going to do?"

Sophie gritted her teeth furiously, her eyes focusing on a blank spot of earth as her mind ran into over-thinking mode. Jin was right to ask that question. What _could_ she do? There wasn't really anything they could do with the Neverseen interfering. That Hollower woman was also a big problem. As long as she released her wrath on them, there was almost no way to escape the fast-moving hollow-ghosts. And where could the other Black Swan members be?

She bit the inside of her cheek as she flurried through her memories, desperate to find something, _anything._ Then she gasped. They had been moving toward where Gethen was being held, going with Perona's information that had been hidden in her mind, to rescue Adria's parents. But would they really be so easily defeated? The most powerful members of the Neverseen were all gathered in this small cave, and if they really were captured, would Sora, Soreas, Coreana, Adria, Iorgo, Mira, Albie, and Sam really just sit there and do nothing?

In a flash of hope, her eyes flickered to the rescue-calling bracelet still resting on Biana's left wrist. She couldn't believe that the Neverseen had overlooked that, despite the numerous times that she and her friends had used it to call for help.

Sophie closed her eyes and then opened them again, drawing energy from her gut as she did so. She focused the gut energy on the clasp securing the bracelet onto Biana's wrist, pushing it free.

The bracelet tumbled down onto the ground, rolling slowly in a small circle. Sophie snatched it up before the Neverseen members could react, tapping her fingers furiously on the blank transparent screen, trying to trigger a reply from Sora or anyone. "Help!" she whisper-shouted, growing more and more desperate by the millisecond. "HELP!"

Suddenly, the bracelet was knocked from her hand. Jin glared at Sophie defiantly, but soon a smug smile creeped up her lips as the bracelet flew into her hand. Without hesitation, she snapped the measly cuff into half and let it fall onto the ground, further crushing it beyond recognition with the metallic tip of her boot. The light from Sophie's amulet struck onto the tip of Jin's boot, glinting brightly for a split second before it vanished.

Sophie's eyes widened as she caught the familiar glint of ellinaum. Jin's boots were an exact copy of Sora's, with its tight brown shoelaces crisscrossing up.

"It can't be Sora," she mumbled under her breath. "It's clearly Jin, but why does she have Sora's boots?"

Did Jin steal them from Sora? Nah, that was too silly an idea to be considered. The only sensible conclusion was that the twins owned identical boots. But Sophie had never heard Sora mention about _that _before, though she mustn't have known that Jin had identical boots because when Sophie had probed her memories, there was nothing of the sort.

Her train of thoughts was cut short abruptly as the zooming of translucent white missed her by the width of a hairline. Heart thudding violently against her chest, Sophie ducked and rolled down onto the rocky ground, managing to compose herself before the second ghost struck from behind. She gasped, but it was too late. The little hollower slowed its pace inches away from her chest—

Then dissipated into fine dust.

The Hollower shrieked, flicking her finger and drawing the alabaster dust back into her body, making her look more opaque than before as she went down by three centimetres, her feet by now almost skimming the ground. She threw a venomous look at Sophie, but Sophie could see the fear and awe tucked hastily behind her shadowy eyes.

In the meantime, Sophie was stunned as she stared at the woman, then at her chest.

"What happened?" Keefe asked in a breathless, shocked voice.

Sophie glanced down at the amulet, still glowing as bright as before. Her fingers went up and squeezed the heart-shaped glass, the two pieces of diamonds, one gold and one silver, finally reunited together.

Somehow, the hollow-ghosts were afraid of the light of the pendant. And maybe, that could be their breakthrough.

Brant snarled, and Sophie sensed that he was annoyed at all the disruptions and the unexpected turning of the tables.

He snapped his fingers for the second time this day, and a fiery sphere of Everblaze appeared, floating a few centimetres above his hand. But this time, there was a certain finality to his actions, like he was tired and exasperated and done with everything, and he wanted to start this for real.

Suddenly needing support, Sophie linked hands with Keefe and Dex, wishing for the millionth time this day that Biana wasn't already Hollowed, and that Fitz wasn't held captive by the Neverseen.

In her head, she could hear the faint but distinct voices of Madlen and Estelle, Grady and Edaline, Kenric, Jolie, and anyone that had cared about her even in the slightest bit. Surprisingly, Marella's face was also amongst them.

Even though Jin had already destroyed the rescue-caller, Sophie was confident that Sora and the others had received their message and were already on their way to here.

Brant smirked, a crooked, lopsided, but wicked smile that would've totally broken Jolie's heart. "And now I get to finish this, once and for all."

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**That last line was a slip-up that I ship Brant and Jolie, LOL. And I do. I ship them so hard, to the moon and back. ^.^  
**


	69. Chapter 69, Part One

**Hi guys, it's me again. I am almost done with all my examinations, and I was feeling bored today to not study, so I decided to grace you all with a chapter-well, half chapter, but it's the longest half-chapter ever, long enough to be a chapter itself, but whatever. I kind of like half-chapters.**

**Sorry for not updating in, like, about two months. I promise after the exams this week, I'll be back in full force! Like for real.**

**Word count: 6,617 words. Wow! This is the longest chapter I've ever written in a while. Maybe the writing spirit is slowly returning back to me. **

**I would like to personally apologise to 'a person', and 'daringwolf2000'. You guys are two of my most awesome reviewers, and you have been here with me for a very, very long time already. And I know that you probably would have lost your interest in this fanfic by now, because pretty much anything that falls into the Second Page of Doom is long forgotten. (If you don't know what that is, it's okay, Just one of my many weird names I give random things.) Again, I am so sorry.**

**And now I would like to answer to every one of twinkletoestbh's super long reviews. Sorry I didn't last chapter, I was really caught up for time that time.**

**twinkletoestbh: Thank you! Honestly, I don't think that my fanfic is good enough to be an actual Keeper book, but thanks anyway. :P hope this could be a sign that I actually _do_ have a chance to become an author...And Soriana for the win! About the O2 CO2 thing, I get what you mean. But when there is a lot of wind, it can smother out the fire. Lol. I'm supposed to be science-y. And that third review..I literally laughed out loud. Your thoughts are all so hilarious. Oh, and a sakura is a cherry blossom. Found in Japan. I'm not a lot of help, but Google is your dependable friend. :P Thanks for the congrats over PSLE! It was a long time ago...Secondary school is tougher. Mehh. And Sadie did made a reappearance-your prediction is spot on! *laughs at the unintended Miraculous Ladybug pun* I'm gonna explain it in this chapter.**

**daringwolf2000: Yep! I actually thought of combining all the half-chapters when I'm done with this fanfiction(it feels like it takes forever to finish this one) but then I didn't want to hurt my readers' eyes. Ha, even though my eyesight is bonkers sorry for the long wait, hope you like this chapter! :)))**

**A person: Lol, sorry for the cliffhanger. :P And sorry for making you wait so long :'((( But thank you so much and hope you like this chapter! :)))**

**I think I'm going to have to update some chapters onto the Wattpad version. It literally only has, like, 38 chapters. This poor thing over here has 68 and a half chapters and going strong. Lol!**

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**Chapter 69, Part One**

"You don't get to finish anything!" she shouted, louder than she'd ever remembered being.

Sophie's voice resonated around the cramped cave, echoing loudly. The sound of her own voice made her pause slightly, in stunned shock.

Had that just been _her?_

Even Brant seemed frozen into place as his hand fell limp to his side, the glowing fire winking out in a second. The Hollower lost her balance in the air, and tumbled down onto the ground with a loud thud. The Shade released his shadows slightly, regarding her with an unreadable expression. Jin just stared at her with her dark aquamarine eyes, her eyes glassy with shock and some other emotion.

Sophie took advantage of that precious second, and pulled Keefe's hand along with her as they bolted out of the crack in the wall. Sophie bit her lip as she realised that she had just left Dex alone with two unconscious Vackers to tend on his own.

"Hey," Keefe called out, tightening his fingers around Sophie's. "Where are we going? And you sure Dex can survive on his own?"

Sophie didn't answer him, and as they whizzed past a sharp turn in an empty corridor in tensed silence, their shadows moved along with them quickly.

"HEY!" shouted Keefe, so loud that Sophie pulled to an abrupt stop. Fire suddenly burning in her veins, she whirled around in anger to face Keefe.

"SHUT UP!"

He flinched, but he didn't untangle his fingers from hers. Instead, he used his other hand to grab hold of Sophie's left shoulder, making it Sophie's turn to flinch too.

She still hadn't forgotten about the kiss that had woken her up, and although she was trying to shake it off and forget everything for the time being, the both of them knew that it wasn't over. And they were trying to get the message across to each other by squabbling—probably not a very wise choice to make.

"Dex can't handle it on his own!" Keefe insisted loudly, shaking her shoulders wildly until Sophie pressed her lips tightly in irritation.

"And how would you know that?" she hissed at him, wrenching his hands away from her. "Do you not trust him? He's my best friend. He can handle anything!"

Her voice grew louder and louder by each word, almost as if she was threatening him.

Keefe fell silent for a long while, avoiding Sophie's piercing gaze before he whispered, his voice dripping with venom, "And you think you can, huh?"

Without thinking, Sophie shot a death glare at him defiantly, her voice blazing. "Yes, I can!"

She didn't know where or when she had found the gall and audacity to speak to Keefe like that, or anyone in that matter. However, who the heck was Keefe to challenge Dex? Did he think that he himself could?

She and Dex had gone through a lot together, from the moment when they'd become friends, got kidnapped and tortured by the Neverseen, until the moment now, where their lives were again being endangered by the evil organization. They probably had more experience with them than anyone else.

Keefe opened his mouth to speak, and Sophie knew it probably wasn't going to be anything nice. "Well—"

A flurry of shadows appeared out of nowhere, poised to strike. Sophie, still wearing the glowing amulet, saw it first. Her heart hammering in her ears, she shouted, "Look out!" and grabbed Keefe's hand again before he could protest.

The two of them ducked and dodged the dark shadows that didn't seem to come from anywhere. Even as Sophie's eyes adjusted to the darkness, the Shade was nowhere to be seen.

And then it came. A dark, deep voice that sent chills down Sophie's spine. Followed by a familiar pealing, high-pitched, girly laughter that bounced off the walls.

_Jin._

The corridor gradually darkened, shadows merging together even more tightly as second by second passed, until the only thing Sophie could see was the glow of the amulet, guiding her through the suffocating blackness. And the warmth of Keefe's hand, letting her know that at least she wasn't alone in this—but Dex was. Finally, the first trickles of guilt started to drop, but she wiped them away from her mind and heart quickly. She couldn't let anything deter her and Keefe from reaching Sora and the others.

As they turned another corner, the Shade and Jin hot on their tails, Sophie stretched out her mind as far as it could go, until she was sure that she'd covered the entire base of the Neverseen. Prickling, emotion-filled thoughts jabbed at her, causing her to suck in a soft, pained breath, but she maintained her stance and started to sift through the thoughts like they were air. She skipped past the Neverseen members' thoughts, trying to get a sense of where her friends were. Dex was about five hundred metres away from them. His panicked thoughts flew into her head, and she bit back a sob, shoving them away as ruthlessly as she could.

After a while, she caught a hint of a whisper. A thought. A voice that was all too familiar.

_Soreas._

She homed in on his location, and with extra strength and motivation, she tugged Keefe to move faster. With a little bit of desperation and adrenaline, she summoned her gut energy and formed an invisible wall in between her and Keefe, and Jin and the Shade.

When she turned her head to look back, the two chasers had stopped in front of the wall, staring at it as they fought to catch their breaths. But Sophie knew it probably wouldn't hold them for long, and her energy was already slipping away like sand in a hourglass.

"Come on, Soreas," she whispered pressingly. "If I can teleport without free-falling once again . . . But if only I can find all of you in time!"

They slowed down to catch their breath, and Sophie released her hold on the invisible wall, knowing that Jin would track her thoughts now and pinpoint her location in a second. Gritting her teeth as she strengthened her mental barriers, Sophie took the final step toward where she knew Soreas would be.

She and Keefe had stepped in front of a strange door, kind of reminding Sophie of the doors in Exile, but with more of a modern-ish style. The door was queerly clear glass, with gleaming silver hinges on the left, and a swirly doorknob on the right. As she tried to peer through the glass, she saw Sora, Soreas, Mira, and Albie gathered around a person she had wished to never see again.

"Oh, look at who we've got here," muttered Keefe, turning the doorknob and swinging the door open before Sophie could stop him. "What was his name again, Foster?"

He was clearly trying to change back into his joking self again, but his voice tone proved otherwise. Sophie could somehow hear his voice whispering into his ear, four words that made her swallow the lump in her throat.

_This isn't over yet._

Of course it wasn't over yet, but they had more vital things to do before they could call it case closed.

With a slight frown, Sophie said, "Gethen."

Her lips trembled as she said the name. She technically hated Gethen, but she was also a little frightened of him. He had been the first Neverseen member Sophie had seen—excluding the Boy Who Disappeared—and he had immediately tried to snatch her—in a creepy way, of course. And he had also been one of Sophie and Dex's kidnappers, and one of the fighters on Mount Everest that time.

It had seemed like a very long time ago already, but the memories were still fresh in her mind. It was probably because of her brilliant photographic memory, but the memories came with intense fear, that made them so horrifying and vivid still.

"Right, Gethen," Keefe said brusquely—a little too emotionless for Sophie's taste, and walked into the room. Normally, he would have told Sophie to stop daydreaming about him. "That took quite a long time for you to answer. But that isn't really the main concern here. Because I have quite a few things to ask him."

Cautiously, Sophie asked, "Like what?"

"Like . . . my mother." He whirled back to face her, his ice blue eyes meeting her brown ones and making her look down. "I've tried to hold it all together, pretend that I'm all right, but . . . there is no such thing as forever in this world, Sophie. _Nothing_ lasts forever. And I can't pretend any longer to be fine. I'm _dying _for answers. I want to _save_ my mum."

Soreas, Sora, Albie, and Mira glanced over their shoulders, hushing silent at the intense conversation.

Sophie took a careful step forward, and Keefe backed away, almost as if he feared her presence.

_"__Save_ your mum?" she whispered, her voice shaking a little too much for her liking. Though she was already very unnerved with the way Keefe was acting. It wasn't like his normal self. "What do you mean? From _what?"_

Although she already kind of knew the answer before Keefe even opened his mouth to speak again.

"From all of _this."_ He gestured wildly around him. "All this, Sophie. The Neverseen. It's like they're spreading an invisible plague around the whole world, wreaking havoc and trying to impurify everyone and everything. I'm just sick and tired of them. Don't they have anything better to do in their sad and pathetic life? _Why must they cause unhappiness for everything?!"_

His voice broke halfway through the mindless yell, and he suddenly stopped, burying his face in his hands.

"Keefe—" Sophie was about to say something to comfort him, but then decided against it. She also wanted to scream, _You're not the only one who's suffering! I'm here, I've been there, I'm still here! _

But they had already argued once. She wanted to believe she wasn't entirely heartless like she always seemed to be, no matter how hard it was. However, she also didn't have the heart and energy to babble some sappy and dramatic speech, and she was sure Keefe wouldn't appreciate that, either.

"So, do you want to ask him some questions?" she finally asked him, signaling toward Gethen. His eyes were half-open, his body moving with the slow rise and fall of the chest, making it impossible to decide if he was unconscious or not. But even if he wasn't conscious, Sophie was pretty sure Keefe would try anything to wake him up. The corners of his cracked lips were caked with dried drool, and his legs and arms were chained up tightly, frost travelling seamlessly across the chilly metal.

Curious, Sophie leaned forward, her fingers stretching to touch it.

"Don't touch it!" Soreas ordered, running toward her. "Your fingers would freeze if you did."

Startled and alarmed, Sophie jerked away from the chains, her heart palpitating with a wild ferocity, thudding so hard she could even hear it in her ears. She swallowed the lump in her throat, and asked, "Coreana did it?"

"Yup," confirmed Sora, walking over with Mira and Albie. "Before she and the others left, she froze it to keep Gethen from doing anything stupid. See the ice crawling up from his toes and his arms? Don't worry, it won't kill him. It'll just numb him, and he'll be unable to move his legs and arms until Coreana comes back and reverses the ice particles."

Sophie knew something about how Coreana's power worked before, when Coreana had explained about 'breaking the ice', but she didn't understand how the other angles of Froster came together. "Ice particles? What do you mean?"

"Basically, Coreana can see the little bits of water and ice particles hovering in the air," Albie explained. "Just like Mira here, but she doesn't have as much concentrated control over anything as she can control a variety of elements. And Coreana can control these particles. She can turn water into ice, and she can move these ice particles the way she wants to, to create something."

Sophie was expecting Keefe to say something about that making no sense at all, and turned to her side to tell him a joke she was sure he would laugh at, when she noticed that the space beside her was empty.

"He's over there," said Mira simply, pointing at Gethen. Keefe was crouching in front of him, scrutinizing him with a deadly expression as he muttered something under his breath that Sophie couldn't hear. He seemed to be in a sort of trance, and he simply ignored Sophie when she called his name. Maybe he couldn't hear her at all.

Sophie didn't blame him at all. She had gone through thousands and thousands of horrible, terrifying things that had put her in immense, infinite danger, but she wasn't sure if she had ever felt the pain and grief that Keefe had experienced when he had found out that his own mother was one of the leaders of the Neverseen. And ever since the Telepathy Room incident, they had never seen Lady Gisela again.

Where could she be?

Did she know that she was hurting her son?

Or, did she even miss him at all?

She sent an apologetic look toward Sora, Soreas, Mira, and Albie, her heart warming in gratitude when they gave her understanding smiles. Sometimes, the Black Swan members scared her a little with their bold and complex attitudes and hearts, but in the end, they were all on the same side. They understood each other and fought for the same cause.

And they all thought that she was their leader.

Was she really?

Did she have the capability to be one?

She didn't think so.

And yet, they were all depending on her.

Although, what was the use when she couldn't even hold herself back?

She'd _snapped_ at her friend. Just because he was worried about someone. And he had been and still was experiencing the grief from the situation about his mother.

Why couldn't she be more sympathetic and understanding?

Why was she so self-centered at times? And so selfish? So apathetic?

She wasn't really made to be a leader. She really, really wished they would stop calling her that.

And if she wasn't made to be a leader, why was she the Moonlark, anyway? Why didn't they make Sora . . . or anyone else who could at least stand her ground and understand others and motivate and encourage her teammates?

Her friends didn't deserve someone who yelled at them and snapped at them and made them feel horrible and even more angry than they already were.

Sora shot her a worried look, her pale aquamarine eyes blinking at her in concern. "Sophie, are you okay?"

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat, blinking back her tears. She could still remember all the things that Sora had done for her. Motivating her, encouraging her to push on, when she wanted to give up. Cheering her on, spreading her confidence to her when she had little in herself.

Taking the blow for her selflessly, and falling into a coma.

For _her._

"I'm okay. I was looking for you all," she said, hoping that the nerves in her voice hadn't betrayed the gravity of the situation—yet. "Where are the others?"

Mira placed her hands on her hips and said sarcastically, "I could ask you the same thing. Where are the others?"

She gestured to the vast, empty space around Sophie, where all her friends should have been.

But now?

Biana had been Hollowed by the Hollower, Fitz had been captured and tortured repeatedly by Brant's deadly Pyrokinetic ability.

And Sophie? What help had she been?

She'd ditched Dex and ran off with Keefe to leave him to face the Neverseen's Collective alone. She thought back to the moment when the Shade and Jin had been chasing them. Had they given up by now? Had they changed their mind, and decided to head back to torture her friends even more?

She cringed at the thought.

"Mira, please," said Albie, a tinge of impatience in his voice—he must've thought that Sophie had cringed because of Mira's sharp tongue.

Mira sighed, though a hint of a smile was hidden in the corners of lips as she said in resignation, "Alright, I'll hold my tongue back—for now. But seriously. Biana called for help, didn't she? So, we sent the others to help you."

"But why did you ask us to meet you over there?" asked Sophie, confused. "We went in the crack of the wall, expecting to see Sora and all of you, but in the end, it was a trap. Brant, Jin, and a few other people were waiting for us instead."

Sora shook her head. "We _never_ asked you to meet up anywhere. Neither did Adria. I don't know how they managed, but it was a trap all right."

"Oh, and yeah," Albie piped in, sounding a little too fake-cheery, "What's up with this guy?"

He waved his hand, and with a swirling wind of cherry blossoms, ten other hands sprouted out of the wall, all pointing at Keefe, who was now stalking toward Gethen, his fists clenched.

"Geez, Albie," said Mira. "Do you always have to point other people's problems out?"

"Like _you_ don't."

Sophie suddenly remembered something, and her heart picked up again. "Oh! And um, one Shade and Jin are now chasing after us . . . I don't know where they went."

Surely they would have tracked them by now.

Soreas shrugged. "I can handle them, I guess."

Sora glared at him, and jabbed a finger at him. "You mean, _we_ can handle them. You're a big softie when it comes to Jin. Don't deny it."

"I wasn't being self-centered. And who said I was a big softie? I always see _you_ hesitating around when it came to attacking Jin, our dear twin sister, oh, and did I mention, _dear enemy!"_"

Sora's eyes went wide, but there was a tinge of mockery hidden inside her eyes. "I didn't say _anything_ about you being self-centered. And forget about Jin, that blockhead."

Sophie smiled slightly at the unintended pun. She could still remember the time when she had tried to read Jin's mind but couldn't as Jin had blocked her.

"Well, you implied it," argued Soreas, his voice growing louder and louder by each second.

"That's not the same thing."

"Actually, it is."

"Not."

"Is. Before you say 'not', just remember I'm the older one and so I have the last word—"

"Not. Ha."

Sophie rolled her eyes, but inwardly, she smiled in gratitude and amusement at the two siblings. "Stop bickering."

Her expression saddened when she turned around to gaze at Keefe, maybe for a second too long. "I . . . I'm a bit concerned about Keefe."

Albie snorted. "Of course you are."

Sophie whirled around to face him. She was pretty sure her facial expression was full of desperation by now. "No, really, I _am!_ He—he's my friend. He's gone through a lot. His mother is one of them. And now, he's brooding on it. How can I _not_ be concerned for him? You may not care about him, but _I_ do. And I want to help him."

Her voice echoed around the room loudly, a little too loudly for Sophie's liking.

The room fell silent for what seemed like an eternity, before Mira shrugged casually, and said in a nonchalant voice, "All talk and no action, I guess."

Sophie's fists clenched.

"Just because you got that sparkly new accessory worn around your neck doesn't mean you are above us all," she said, her pace picking up. "And we _do_ care for him. I might seem a little cutting at times, but it's all for everyone's good. I don't want to repeat what happened in the past." She glanced at Albie, and for a split second, her sharp eyes seemed to soften a little, before reverting back to her usual no-nonsense expression. "And before you say that I don't understand anything, just let me say loud and clear that I do. Everyone has a hidden past, a dark story to tell, Sophie. Just because not everyone is willing to tell theirs, doesn't mean that they're heartless."

She shrugged off her cape, letting it fall to the floor, and revealing her sleeveless tunic. The large, white jagged scar ran from her upper arm to her elbow, making her look fiercer than usual. Even more powerful than Sophie knew she already was.

Sophie stared long and hard at the scar, remembering the time when Mira had accidentally shown her scar when reaching for her food. At that time, she had been very evasive, and had even snapped at Sophie when she asked her about her past.

She snapped her fingers, and mist gathered around them, fogging away the entrance and swirling around their ankles. And when Sophie glanced back, she noticed that the mist had completely covered Gethen and Keefe, obscuring her view of them.

Stunned, she turned back toward Mira, to find that she was staring at her.

"They need their own personal time with each other," she said. "I believe that Mr. Sencen has much to talk to Gethen about. And while Soreas and Sora stay put here to guard the two of them, why don't you and Albie tag along with me to save some certain people?"

"He'll be all right," Albie assured Sophie when she looked back at the thick mist, trying to somehow spot Keefe through the foggy curtains. "Soreas and Sora would take care of them, and after all, I believe your friends need more help from us than they do."

Sophie hesitated for a fraction of a second, before saying, "Okay."

Albie was right. Dex couldn't handle it by his own with three other disabled friends.

She took one last glance at the fog, and transmitted a message through it, hoping Keefe could hear it.

_Stay safe._

She paused a fraction of a second, hoping for at least a hint of a response from Keefe. Another second passed, and Sophie held her breath, not daring to do anything in case she missed something.

Nothing happened.

Sophie slumped her shoulders, turning away from the hidden-away Keefe. Maybe he couldn't hear her anyway. Maybe . . .

"Hey," said Albie, offering her an encouraging smile. "I know you had enough of this sentence, but there's no reason to worry."

Sophie blanched in surprise at the nostalgic phrasing, and stared up at his dark, stormy-blue eyes and jet-black hair, which contrasted against his pale skin. Albie Leven did not look like a Vacker, but he was sure acting like one.

She broke out of her trance and shook her head. It couldn't be possible. Instead, she offered a smile, hoping that it didn't look more like a grimace to him. "Thank you."

"Ready?" asked Mira, cracking her knuckles loudly as she walked through the door, Albie and Sophie following close behind.

After all that Sophie had been through, she would've thought that she was the one to lead them. But through this shocking experience, she knew that she could only be a leader for so long, whereas Mira had the calmness and the commanding strength of a leader that put her more at ease than the time when she had to take charge of things back at the cave.

She had gained some sort of respect for the Forecaster, and it was ironic since _she_ was supposed to be the moonlark. The suldreen. Their saving grace. The hero, and the one that would defeat the Neverseen once and for all.

She might have astounding powers that anyone would kill for, but in the end, nobody was perfect. Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses, their own talents and faults.

Sophie might have been made to be a hero. But that didn't mean somebody else could be a better one.

And somehow, that comforted her.

* * *

"Do you know where they are?" Sophie asked Mira and Albie as they walked along the drab grey corridors of the Neverseen base. She wondered why they weren't running already. Even though her leg muscles were aching terribly from the frequent runs around the base, escaping from the inevitable Neverseen members, she had a sort of burning willpower in her heart that made her yearn to stretch her legs and dash toward her friends to save them right now.

Not that she was dumb enough to charge in without a plan.

The corridors were empty and quiet, and all was silent except for the occasional drafty winds that rustled in through goodness-knew-where, and that sent a chill down Sophie's spine. She knew that ghosts probably didn't exist, but it sure reminded her of the haunted houses that Amy used to force Sophie to go with her.

_Amy . . ._

Sophie pursed her lips together. She had no time to think about the past now. Amy was probably slacking in her class, doodling little girls in the margins of her exercise book now, enjoying her life. And Sophie wasn't. Not at all.

She knew she wasn't normal, as a human. She thought she'd found a place that she truly belonged in, until she realised she wasn't normal, as an elf, too.

Could her life get _any_ worse?

"You keep spacing out, Sophie Foster," Mira said dryly, glancing back at her. "Need me to drench you with one of my ice-cold rainfalls?"

Sophie shook herself out of her reverie, and said, "No, thanks." She resisted the urge not to shudder as she imagined a bucket full of icy water splashing down on her head, a never-ending storm of cold. It kind of reminded her of the Ice Bucket Challenge back h—the Forbidden Cities, where they had people pour ice-cold water over their heads. But this was the Lost Cities, where things were abnormally different.

_Abnormally different._ Just like the way she was.

"Then stop zoning out like you belong to a completely different world."

Maybe she _did_ belong to a completely different world. One where the only inhabitant was her.

That would be nice.

Not.

Before Sophie could reiterate that her blanking out was none of her business, she caught sight of two familiar figures. And as they neared them, Sophie realised that it was Coreana and Iorgo, posing protective stances as they stared up at the Hollower.

"Iorgo! Coreana!" Sophie was about to call out, but then Mira stopped her, shooting her a look that was probably meant to say, _Shut up and follow my lead exactly or we'll land into hot water._

She twirled her fingers, drawing in endless amounts of mist and blanketing them inside the strands of mist. Instantly, Sophie's arms slicked with cool water, due to the warmer water vapour from the mist getting in contact with the cooler surface of her arms, losing heat and condensing into tiny little droplets of water.

But as she was about to complain, Mira gathered the water droplets from their bodies and turned them into mist again, repeating the cycle over and over. She didn't seem to get tired at all, even after ten rounds of the meaningless cycle, while Sophie and Albie watched Coreana and Iorgo battle the Hollower.

They effortlessly dodged the Hollower's translucent ghosts, Coreana shooting icy spears at the Hollower—who missed them by a hairline—and Iorgo closing in secretly to sneak a roundhouse kick at her.

But the Hollower didn't even bother to dodge them this time. She just laughed piercingly as his leg passed through her like she was just a complex hologram, while Iorgo gritted his teeth and squared his shoulders.

That was when Sophie realised that if any solid objects couldn't hurt her at all, Coreana's ice shards also wouldn't get a chance in hurting her, even if Coreana managed to hit her perfectly. She was like a ghost herself, swooping and darting around in the air agilely and nimbly, as light as a feather and as fast as lightning could go.

And the Hollower knew that Coreana and Iorgo couldn't hurt her—that was probably why she hadn't even conjured up her little hollowers to help her. She was just playing with them, watching them with an amused smile curling up her lips as she flew around, blinking in and out exactly like how a Vanisher would do so.

_We have to help them, _she transmitted, but she knew that Mira and Albie couldn't do much to help either, despite how powerful their abilities might be. Suddenly, she thought of herself, then stared down at the glowing amulet. She had tucked it under her clothes to reduce the light, but she could still see the faint light radiating from inside.

The light suddenly flared up brighter than ever, as if it knew what she was thinking and was encouraging her.

It was like Estelle and Madlen themselves were telling her what to do. She stared at it as it shone a clear path through the mist, dissipating the foggy screen and revealing their location.

Mira glared at her as if to say, _What the heck are you trying to do?_ And Albie just stared at her disbelievingly.

Sophie just pointed at her amulet as she pulled it out, making it glimmer even radiantly than before. Mira and Albie shielded her eyes as Sophie caught the Hollower's attention. Iorgo and Coreana also turned to face her, their eyes widening when they saw her.

_Sophie,_ Estelle's voice suddenly rang out in her head loud and clear, echoing over and over again, forcing her to stop and listen. _Rip off the amulet and throw it at her._

_But—_Sophie tried to argue.

_It's the only way to get rid of her for good. And don't worry if you think this is the last present you'll get from me and Madlen. When everything is over, everything is all right, there will be a greater gift that we have prepared back at your home in the Lost Cities. _

_Okay, fine, _Sophie grudgingly agreed, hoping that Estelle wasn't lying just to get her to throw the amulet. Inside her mind as her fingers flew up to unclasp the silver cord, a million questions whirled in her mind: _What is this? Why does it give off a strange light? Why does it scare off the Hollower? Can you ever turn it off? How are you even communicating with me? You were not a Telepath. You're . . . dead._

_But anyway, thank you for guiding me through everything. _

In an instant, Sophie ripped off the cord from the amulet, and threw the heart-shaped gold-silver glowing amulet toward the stunned Hollower with more force than she'd ever known. The force was fueled with all her emotions and thoughts of all her loved ones. And how this was going to be another step toward defeating the enemy that kept on hurting all of them.

_This has to stop, _she thought firmly and fiercely as the amulet flew toward the Hollower at breakneck speed.

She watched silently as the amulet approached the Hollower, half-imagining the Hollower ducking away at the last split second, or the amulet simply passing through her like Iorgo's kicks or Coreana's ice spears.

Instead, the blinding light from the amulet seemed to grow stronger and stronger and brighter and brighter, downright paralyzing the Hollower from head to toe, and it finally struck the Hollower hard, and bounced back as if she'd turned solid too.

The Hollower's feet stumbled to the ground, her knees buckling and her body falling clumsily and heavily as she winked out in a flash of light.

At first, for a stunned moment, no one dared to move. Sophie's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the empty space where the Hollower used to be, and gasped, the sound escaping her throat hoarsely as she caught sight of a heart-shaped object laying stilly on the ground, glowing no longer.

Her legs felt like lead as she forced herself to walk toward the place where the amulet was. As she bent down and scrutinized the amulet, her heart sank. The amulet was charred with black scratches, and a huge gash slashed from one half of the pendant to the other half.

She didn't even notice that she was crying, not before a few drop of wetness plopped onto the ground as she bent her head and stared at what was remaining of the amulet.

Mira squeezed her shoulders sadly as Albie patted her back awkwardly as she wept silently, her shaky fingers drawing out the silver cord from her pocket where she'd put it one minute ago. The world blurred with her tears, but then she blinked them away when a smear of black on the silver appeared before her eyes.

"What?" she mumbled incoherently as she held the cord closer to her eyes, squinting as the tiny Black Swan runes that were squeezed onto the silver became apparent.

_Open my heart and my last message awaits._

Heart beating, Sophie took the pendant in her hands and snapped it into half. Two pieces of paper fell out, swaying and drifting peacefully in the air before Sophie grabbed them quickly, smoothing the papers out.

One read:

_My dear Estelle, _

_Live forever in my heart. _

_I will take care of our suldreen._

_Fret not._

_-Madlen Lingua_

The other read:

_My dear Madlen,_

_Stay forever in my heart._

_I will watch over our suldreen._

_Worry not._

_-Estelle Lundian_

The three of them stayed silent for a while, not sure what to say. Sophie sighed. She had had the amulet for a very long time already, and so did Keefe. How had they not noticed _this?_

Suddenly, she caught sight of another piece of paper, fresher and newer this time, crammed into the pendant so tightly that she had missed it the first time. Almost eagerly, Sophie took out the piece of paper, glad that it didn't break as her eyes scanned through the straight, neat handwriting. And this time, the letter was addressed to her. But the sender of the letter surprised her.

_Sophie:_

_Sadie Elyon here. I'm sorry to have invaded your privacy, I didn't mean to. You should have been the one to read those letters first, not me. But I didn't do it on purpose._

_I saw that time when Madlen helped you put the pendant on, and his expression was one of love and affection. Pardon me, for that time I was jealous of the attention you got and that just fueled me to steal that pendant. Perhaps it didn't really mean anything to you at that time, but I guess that'll change when you read the letters in here._

_When you gave it to Keefe, I thought that it'd be easier. I had no idea Keefe was so much more cautious than you—his cautiousness and his joking personality don't match, I guess. And when he caught me sneaking behind him trying to get the amulet off, he gave it to Sir Kerlof in an attempt to get me away from stealing it. But I wasn't defeated. That time during the stealth activity? I sneaked into Madlen's office, and I found a similar pendant, but it was silver instead. And when I retrieved it, it started to glow. _

_With a theory in mind, I started searching for the other pendant. Found out the closer I get to the other one, the brighter mine shines. So when I finally found it and tried to piece it together (what?—it looked like a heart pieced together, okay?), the whole thing went bonkers. _

_Scared, I asked one of my Conjuror friends to conjure it back onto your neck. Luckily, she didn't ask any questions. I reckon that you've found it now, and is now reading this note._

_I don't know where you all have gone to—but there are rumours saying that you went to the Neverseen base to infiltrate them as part of a secret project. Me and Christina tried asking Sir Kerlof, but he didn't say anything. He looked angry, though._

_Hope you can come back soon safe and sound._

Sophie stared at the letter in shock. So Keefe hadn't lost the amulet at all! He was annoyed at Sadie trying to steal it away, and asked Sir Kerlof to hide it. So then why did he try to act dumb and ask about his amulet, making Sophie so worried and angry at him at that time?

Maybe he didn't want to worry Sophie even more by including Sadie inside. Sadie was a headache, and Sophie was slightly creeped out by the fact that she'd read Madlen and Estelle's letters to each other before she herself did.

"Wow," Albie muttered, after a while. "Sadie's really something. Snooping around other people's stuff. Meddling with the dead's possessions."

Sophie's cheeks flushed with heat when she reminded herself that she had also 'meddled with the dead's possessions'—that time when they had snooped into Estelle's office and swiped the scrolls away to read.

Reminded by the scrolls, Sophie recalled the first sentence in one of Estelle's scrolls.

_She's here. The moonlark. She looks too much like her. And now, it's too late._

Who did 'her' refer to?

And if 'her' looked too much like Sophie, did that mean that 'her' was Sophie's mother?

And if Estelle was Sophie's mother, then . . . Estelle was writing herself in third-person on that scroll, before switching to first-person in her recount of drowning in the Root Abyss?

It only made sense like that, and all evidence pointed to Estelle being her mother. Sophie might not have noticed it before, but now that she knew the actual truth, she could see similarities between her and Estelle. They had the same eye shape and nose. Sophie had Madlen's mouth and cheekbones.

Then why, then, did Jolie tell her that she was her mother?

Or was that just an illusion played by Prentice's broken mind?

She guessed that she could never know what exactly was going on inside a broken mind. A twisted mind came with twisted thoughts . . . she should have known better to wholly trust 'Jolie', even though it was Prentice.

_Prentice is the key, _both Master Leto and Estelle had told her before.

She thought back to Prentice. She'd healed him, and not long after, he awoke. And she still hadn't a chance to see him yet. And what about Master Leto? Sophie could imagine his disappointed face when Sadie had written in her letter that he had looked 'angry'. He'd probably visited Prentice. What would he say? Prentice probably remembered Sophie . . .

_Where's the moonlark? _He'd ask.

Master Leto would probably say, _Those kids. Sophie's gone missing._

And then he'd sigh, the weight of a thousand years crashing down on him, making him look older in an instant.

Sophie shook the scene out of her head, blinking back tears furiously as she turned to face a Coreana, Iorgo, Albie, and Mira. She took a deep breath, calming herself down and steeling her nerves as she squared her shoulders and said,

"Let's go rescue our friends."

She tried to channel the determination and love and all the emotions she'd felt just now, hoping that it would give her enough strength to bring everything back to normal. And then Alden would finally say 'no reason to worry' and mean it.

* * *

**Question:I'm probably not going to get a response, but what countries are all of you from? Just curious :) **

**I'm from Singapore. If you don't know. And I'm billingual, I use both English and Chinese. I wanted to take Japanese as third language but after seeing my Third Language friend suffer so much, I think I made the right choice. Hehe :)**


	70. Chapter 69, Part Two

**Hello, guys! I hope I'm not too late this time for my update! **

**Whew, we've gotten back our examination results. I got A1 for Math (wow, unexpected)! And some other subject, I can't remember. I got a couple A2s, and B3s for Chinese and some other subjects. *weeps at the B3s* The exam debriefs are _so_ taxing, and every day my legs hurt from sitting crisscross for so long. Lucky we get to go home earlier, so I have more time to update!**

**daringwolf2000: USA's a lovely place! I want to go there...I can meet all my fellow Keeper fans and Shannon Messenger, and my favourite musician, Rachel Platten. Too bad I know that I'm not going there anytime soon. :P And IKR I loved writing that part...It was so touching...(I'm a shameless fangirl of my own stories! :D)**

**A person: Ooh, high five! I'm super proud of being a Chinese and it's always lovely to meet another! Thank you for hanging around my story and bearing with me. Super appreciate it :D**

**nena: Wow, that's impressive! Three languages! I wanted to be trilingual but I'm too lazy to. :P Don't let my bad habits rub off of you, go and learn your French! Thank you so much, and hope you like this chapter! :)**

**messisoccer10: Oh, hi, nena-not-nena! It's good to see that you've created your own fanfiction account. Look forward to your reviews! And I'm guessing you like soccer? :)**

**Thanks to messisoccer10 for following and favouriting this poor story of mine!**

**Word count: 5,259 words.**

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**Chapter 69, Part 2**

"Adria . . . she didn't go with us," Coreana said quietly, tracing a finger over her open palm slowly, staring into empty space as she did so. She seemed more sober, less cheerful than Sophie knew she was used to being. There was a sort of stiffness and resounding feeling to her small voice as she told Sophie, Albie, and Mira about what had happened when they had set out to find Sophie and her friends.

Sophie froze. She had totally forgotten that Perona had let on that Adria's parents were being held captive at where Gethen was captured too. She had been too traumatized with the revelation that Madlen and Estelle were her parents, that she forgot the other important piece of information that Perona had given them.

Guilt trickled into her heart as Coreana told her about Adria's past, but she held it back for what seemed like the millionth time already. Sophie hadn't thought much about Adria's parents, as she had her own parental issues to take care of, and she hadn't thought that it was really that important. To Sophie, at least.

To Adria, it was the most vital thing in her world. She had been with her family—once. But it had all changed when the Neverseen forcibly recruited her mother and her father, and in order to protect young Adria from the evil organization, her mother secretly passed her to the Black Swan, begging and begging Magnate Leto to hide her child. Magnate Leto had taken pity for the three year old kicking and crying and yelling that she didn't want to be separated from her family, and told her gently that everything was going to be all right.

Even though it wasn't.

After Biana had called for help, the matching wrist cuff that hung around Sora's hand had belted out the all-too-familiar emergency siren, making them freeze before any of them could do anything to Gethen. They had found the place where Gethen and Adria's parents had been held at, and Adria had straight out broken down at the sight of her mother and father, whom she thought she would never ever get to see again.

It turned out, Elodie hadn't been lying when she had said that Adria's parents were still alive. Adria had assumed that they were dead, because one fateful day, a scroll addressed to the Lentz's missing daughter came from the Councillors, announcing that Kelsen and Nividia Lentz's funerals would soon be undergoing.

Adria had wanted so, so badly to attend their funeral—even though it would only make her hurt more—but Magnate Leto told her it was impossible. She couldn't go out to the Wanderling Woods, back into the Lost Cities, back under the watchful eye of the Council. It would only draw attention to her, and the Black Swan. So she had to resort to having a picture of their Wanderling trees hung up on the wall of her dormitory. Coreana said that when she visited Adria occasionally, she observed that her eyes would sometimes dart up to the picture on the wall, then quickly revert back as if she was afraid to let anyone see that she was still touchy about the subject.

"Adria had always viewed it as a weakness," Coreana said quietly, running her fingers across the crack in the wall. "But as the tables have since turned for the better for Adria, she was elated to meet her parents again. But, the crushing truth was"—a single tear ran down her cheek, freezing halfway—"Adria's parents didn't remember her.

"The Neverseen had stripped off all their memories of anything that could bring them back to the past, when they were still one happy family, when things like the Black Swan and the Neverseen hadn't barged into their life yet," Coreana sighed, as a collective gasp rang out among Sophie, Mira, and Albie. "It was actually fated—Adria knew from the start that the Neverseen had a reputation for erasing away their members' memories of their loved ones. She just wanted to get her hopes up. But as you know, what goes up must come down. Adria was crying at that point of time. She refused to believe it. She decided to do something about it—so she leaped her and her parents back to the Black Swan base. Sam went with her too." A faint smile crossed Coreana's lips. "I believe that they all would find their peace sooner or later—and Adria would fill Sir Kerlof in about what we have been doing, and they would send in reinforcements, I hope. We all know that we've been struggling to hold it together ever since we stepped in here." She shuddered, rubbing her upper arms with her hands. "This place is like a plague."

"By the way, Sophie," Iorgo added, "The way you defeated the Hollower just now . . . it was amazing."

Nicest compliment she'd ever gotten from Ironic Iorgo. "Thanks," Sophie mumbled, keeping her eyes on her boots. "But can we go and rescue Fitz, Biana, and Dex now?"

Mira and Albie nodded their agreement, adding that they had already wasted a lot of time.

"We got this," Coreana assured them, tying up her long hair into a high ponytail. Coldness radiated off her, and Sophie could see the faint white mist seeping out from her. She laughed humourlessly when she caught the horrified and disgusted expression on Sophie's face. "No worries, Sophie. It's just a preparation for the worst. I need to make myself as cold as possible—literally—to be able to make the most use of my Froster ability—as Iorgo can't really do anything with his ability as an Empath."

"Shut up," Iorgo grumbled. "I can do plenty. Sophie, I hope that infernal creature of yours has went home, because he distracts me."

"Oh yeah," Sophie said, looking around. "Where's Iggy?" Ever since she had fell unconscious after finding out the truth about her parents, Iggy had never appeared again. And speaking about not appearing again, Sophie didn't see Marella too. Where could she have gone? If Adria and Sam had leaped back without Marella, and she wasn't with Sora or Soreas, then . . . where was she?

She voiced the question aloud to Iorgo and Coreana, and they exchanged a secret look with each other that Sophie couldn't figure out what it meant.

"Iggy followed Adria and Sam back. That time," Coreana began. "She woke up, suddenly. She was really confused and stuff like that, and she didn't really seem to know where she was, and why she had the Neverseen eye patch around her arm. I'm just going to put this out here, but Elodie must have been controlling her, mesmerizing her to join the Neverseen and do all these horrible stuff.

"Back a few weeks ago, before we came here, we received a piece of news that Mysterium had burnt down, and the Neverseen were the main suspects. What was so strange about this whole thing was that the Neverseen had the power and ability to burn down Atlantis, Lumeneria, Eternalia, or any other major Lost City. Yet, they chose to burn down Mysterium."

A chill ran down Sophie's spine, then a horrifying realisation struck her. "Wait. Mysterium is where Slurps and Burps is! Don't tell me Dex's family . . ."

She couldn't say the word out loud. Dex would be _devastated. _

To her huge relief, Coreana shook her head. "Thankfully, Dex's family was visiting your adoptive parents Grady and Edaline at that time, and all was well. But clearly, they weren't targeting Slurps and Burps, or any other working class people. Remember when Councillor Terik brought you to the place in Mysterium where the things in your human house were kept? They were targeting _that._ Or so the Council suspected."

Sophie frowned, remembering the moment when she had asked Councillor Terik to bring her to find the notebook that she had needed when she found a long lost memory of the Boy Who Disappeared. It hurt her heart to think that the last remnants of her human life had been burnt away. Literally. But there was something she didn't understand. "But . . . was there anything else important in there that would cease their success? I don't really think so . . ."

"That was what Sir Kerlof thought too," Coreana agreed. "Recall the time when we sent a note to you with part of the missing page that you were looking for? He knew what couldn't bode well for the Neverseen, and ever since you made that reckless mistake to bottle Elementine and face a unnecessary tribunal, he'd never trusted you too much, and he knew the Neverseen would erase anything that would reveal any of their true identities. So Sir Kerlof ripped off the page from your notebook and kept it. He probably knew anything that could threaten the Neverseen. Except that he never found what the Neverseen had found."

"If we had found out what it was, we could probably have discovered something vital about the Neverseen," Iorgo added. "But now, it's gone forever."

"My point is, Marella was the one who set the fire. The careless handiwork showed that it was probably a 'stupid Neverseen newbie', as Soreas would put it," Coreana said sarcastically. "We'd investigated Marella Redek for a while already. You had a fight with her. She got angry, but you never resolved it, even after you set off to find us.

"And . . . her friend, Jensi Babblos was the last one to see her before she disappeared. And he told us that he had seen Marella kidnapped by a mysterious black figure. It was obviously the Neverseen. This shows that Marella didn't join the Neverseen because she wanted to. This wasn't your fault at all. Elodie mesmerized her. And the Mesmer bond must've disappeared when Elodie . . . died. Now, she has completely no inkling of what was going on. We left her in Adria's dormitory, and locked up the door. We can come to her later."

"Now, let's go and rescue our friends," Albie said, flicking his wrist to conjure up a dozen identical arms onto the wall. "We've wasted enough time as it is."

"I suggest we storm in," Mira suggested. "Make a dramatic entrance."

Iorgo rolled his eyes and said that it was better to make the silent approach, but Coreana ignored him and watched as Albie's extra hands ripped and pulled at the crack in the wall, breaking off large bits and pieces of plaster that fell like a rainstorm onto the ground. Mira cupped her hands as they lit up by the palm, yelling for everyone to clear a path as she directed a lightning bolt at the widened crack. The wall set onto fire as it crumbled, but she blasted it out with a strong jet of fierce running water.

The five of them stared at the mutilated wall in front of them, leaving behind a clear passageway that led into the cave.

"All right, Sophie Foster," Mira said, shrugging her shoulders. She pushed Sophie forward, making her stumble forward a few steps. It reminded her of the time when she had pushed Sophie into the Root Abyss. "Lead the way."

Sophie scowled, remembering that she didn't like to be a leader. But she squared her shoulders, knowing that among the five of them she was the only one who knew the way inside, and took the first step toward her second venture into the cave.

Dex, Fitz, and Biana were waiting for her. Depending on her. She couldn't give up on them just yet.

She wished Keefe was here. She thought back to him, and Gethen, still inside the glass room. What was he going to do, or say to Gethen? Would Keefe be all right? Sora and Soreas had assured Sophie that they would protect him and keep a watchful eye over him, but she hadn't forgotten about the Shade, and Jin, who were probably still on the prowl for them. They would find Soreas and Sora, and while the two siblings were fighting them off, Gethen could take advantage of the distraction and do something horrible to Keefe . . .

The odds were definitely not in their favour, and she knew that the stakes have never been higher.

It was really those tensed times where she was about to lose hope and give up, but she knew she couldn't.

The group was silent as they rushed through the passageway and into the cave. As Sophie expected earlier, Brant was there, glaring at them as he held a ball of fire in his only hand. Rage twisted his features as he spat out, "It took you long enough to come back here. And what am I left with here? Myself, and fire. Plus a few useless midgets—you can thank me later."

He pointed at the area behind him, where Fitz, Biana, and Dex lay in a slump together, all unconscious.

Sophie gulped when she saw them, her throat constricting as her heart speeded up, thudding loudly in her ears. She resisted the urge to immediately run toward them and make sure that they were all right.

"Orfeo and Jin have left to find you, but now you're here without them, unscathed." Brant's voice was scathing, and it sent chills down her spine.

It took a second for Sophie to realise that Orfeo was the Shade's name. She shuddered, thinking of the haunting dark shadows that seemed to have a mind of their own.

"And Hulsia is dead. She was such a valuable possession, and now she is gone. Because of you, Sophie Foster." He glared at Sophie, who squeezed the damaged amulet in her pocket.

If Sophie didn't know better, she'd think that Brant was in love with Hulsia—but she knew that he loved Jolie too much for anything else to get into it. A pang of sadness leaked into Sophie's heart, and she felt a little pitiful for Brant as she stared at him. His lover was dead, and all he had left was his ability, which was forbidden. For that one short second, Sophie felt like forgiving him. She felt that it wasn't his fault.

But it quickly turned back into hate, and her irregular heartbeat slowly returned back to normal as she lifted her eyes to meet Brant's ominous figure. Beside her, she could feel Mira tense.

"How did you know?" she whispered, trying to ignore the words 'valuable possession'. Like the Hollower Hulsia was nothing more than a tool to Brant. Like he didn't really care about her at all. Like he just valued the powerful ability that she had possessed.

Brant snorted, as if he was far more superior than the rest of them. In the corner of her eye, Sophie could see Iorgo clench his fists tight, his body shaking uncontrollably in fury.

"You insolent children were speaking so loudly that even a deaf human could hear you. And about the Mysterium incident"—he clenched his fingers, snuffing out the flames—"wouldn't you like to know what really went on."

Sophie was about to yell at him when he cut her off, smiling ominously at her as he rasped mockingly, "I know you still miss your human family, Sophie. Do you feel devastated when you heard that the last bits and pieces of your life back in the Forbidden Cities have been snatched away from your loose grip?" He let out a loud, wicked cackle as he regarded her with a taunting expression. "Too bad for Miss Foster."

Fire burned in Sophie's veins as she gritted her teeth together furiously. She jabbed a finger at Brant, her voice blazing, "You don't know _anything_ about my human family! So stop acting like you do!"

Brant leant closer to her, so close that she could feel the intense heat radiating off of him. She flinched away from his presence, and she knew that Coreana was suffering from the heat too—it must be hard for a Froster to be near a Pyrokinetic. "Really? I don't know anything? How do you explain the fact then, that your human sister hates you? How you two always bickered with each other? How your parents always mentally groaned when you try to bring up the topic about hearing 'strange voices that seem to come out of nowhere'? How they always thought you were crazy afterwards? Do you miss the way that your sister used to tease you for being a mere twelve year-old among the vast sea of seventeen year-olds? And how your parents wished with all their hearts that _you could be normal, like the other children?"_

At that last sentence, Sophie flinched. Despite the blazing heat, she suddenly felt really, really cold. And she was sure it had nothing to do with Coreana either. Maybe it was the fact that Brant had just pointed out everything she didn't like about her human family. Maybe it was the way he made her seem so unwanted, so lonely, so abnormal, and so different.

Or maybe it was the fact that the Black Swan members stayed deadly silent, and if it was Keefe or Biana or Fitz or Dex they would have spoken up to stand by her.

But whatever the reason was, she was stunned silent.

A long, silent, and intense moment passed, the heat burning Sophie's face, before Brant finally leaned back in a triumphant manner and said, "I thought so—"

"What about you?" fired back Mira, startling all of them, including Sophie and Brant. "Did you love the fact that you were discriminated so badly when you were proclaimed Talentless? Did you try to hold a strong ground when small talk about you and Jolie being a bad match came about? No, you didn't. You merely turned to that jerk Fintan for 'help', too blind to notice that he was evil. And so you became like him too. Bad. Evil. Malevolent. And you _killed _her. Killed Jolie. Killed your lover. What right do you have to challenge Sophie's relationships with others? Don't try to deny it. You loved Jolie with all your heart. Unfortunately, she did too—_and that was the greatest mistake she could make in her life!_"

For a second, Brant froze, his eyes going glassy, the heat wavering for a second.

Apparently, that was all the time Mira needed. She zapped a giant bolt of forked lightning at him, the light so blinding bright that Sophie had to shield her eyes as she turned away. She knew this was a bad idea. Lightning could spark up into fire, and fire would just fuel Brant—whatever was Mira thinking?

Mira seemed to have another idea in her mind, because she just flung more lightning bolts at Brant, never stopping to rest or take a breath. Sophie clutched her stomach and covered her eyes as the smell of burning flesh began to waft into her nostrils. She knew Brant had to stop—but Mira was going too far.

"Stop," she said, her voice weak and unsteady, but Mira seemed to hear it because she finally stopped. The deafening sound of thunder subsided in her ears, but in her mind Sophie could still hear it ringing over and over again, refusing to let her go in peace. Slowly, warily, she lifted her hands from her eyes and turned around to face Brant. He was laying on the ground lifelessly, and he wasn't making a movement. His remaining good hand was charred to fleshy red, and his chest was tinged the same horrible colour. His eyes were closed, and his face was pale.

"Is he . . ." Sophie started, then closed her mouth to let her sentence trail off. She didn't want to say it, and surprisingly, she was scared to let him die. Mira _said_ that her lightning bolts couldn't kill people, only harm. He _had_ to be alright. But what had taken over Mira just now? Sophie had just but her trust in her and believed that she was _good,_ and now? She wasn't so sure anymore . . . Sure, even though Brant was the real villain, she didn't have to be so . . . violent, and aggressive. Surely that was only what villains do. Torture.

But then, she remembered what Adria had done to Perona in order to try to get answers out of her. Even though Perona had resisted, Adria had continued torturing her mercilessly.

Was that really how the Black Swan operated?

Had they been hiding behind shady masks all this time?

. . . Were they really as bad as the Neverseen?

Sophie shook her head, refusing to believe it. The Black Swan wasn't like that—no, they _couldn't_ be like that. She had to put her trust in Estelle and Madlen, seeing what kind, compassionate souls they were.

Just then, icy cold water rushed down onto her head, shaking her out of her brooding thoughts. Sophie yelped, her head tingling with coolness as she jumped out of the water's way, and turned her head to shoot a death glare at Mira.

Mira smirked at her while Albie and Coreana laughed amusedly.

Iorgo just stayed silent. Sophie guessed he was still troubled about Perona—he must really love her a lot.

Fresh from the icy water, Sophie turned to look at Brant again. Mira had doused him with water, and he was now encased in a block of ice like Jin had once been. Sophie knew that it probably wouldn't work and Brant would be out in no time, but she just didn't have the heart to tell Coreana that.

"It's cold out here," she said, suddenly feeling goosebumps dimple her arms. She rubbed them vigorously, trying to bring warmth to her body.

"It's just the aftershock and side effects of the free-of-charge ice-cold shower," Mira added cheekily. "We just called Sora and Soreas here, and to bring along Marella. Sora said that they're now fighting off Jin, and Orfeo, so why not drag them along too?"

Suddenly, Sophie remembered Fitz, Biana, and Dex, and rushed towards them worriedly. She almost tripped and fell halfway because she was so hurried, but she managed to rebalance herself and skid over to them. Starting to drag Dex—who was crumpled against Fitz—back onto the ground, she cried in despair, "Dex! Fitz! Biana! Wake up!" She hoped that the Hollower Hulsia's effects on Dex, Fitz and Biana had worn off already, since Hulsia was already dead.

She rolled Fitz off Biana, and all of a sudden, Sophie caught Biana mumbling, "Keefe?"

That brought Sophie's thoughts back to Keefe. She whirled around to face Albie, Mira, Iorgo, and Coreana. "What about Keefe? Are Sora and Soreas bringing him back? And what about Perona?"

Albie was silent for a long while, before whispering, "Sora and Soreas think that it would be better for him to finish his business with Gethen before coming over to join us. We still have a lot of things to accomplish, you know. And Adria leaped away with Perona too, don't worry—I totally forgot about her."

Unsatisfied, Sophie prodded, "Then what about Adria? Didn't you say that she'll send reinforcements?"

"I don't know," Coreana finally said, after an uncomfortable silence settled over them. "She might be too preoccupied with the case about her parents to come and help us. But she _would_ tell Sir Kerlof, I'm sure of it. And if Sir Kerlof doesn't want to help us out now, we'll just have to work this through our way."

_Easier said than done, _Sophie thought, but she didn't say that out loud. Instead, she returned back to attempting to wake her friends up. It might be the jerky, panicky desperation in her voice and actions, but Dex suddenly fluttered his eyes open and caught sight of her.

"Sophie?" he mumbled, staring at her confusedly with his periwinkle blue eyes.

Sophie nearly jumped in relief as she let out a smile, helped Dex to stand, and used a hand to muss up his strawberry blond hair in affection. "I'm so glad you're back, Dex."

Dex hesitated for a while, then smiled back awkwardly. "I'm glad too, Sophie. Should we wake the others up too?"

"Right," Mira said. "Just let me douse them with one of my famous ice-water showers—I'm sure Sophie knows how effective it is."

Sophie knew, but she pretended that she didn't hear Mira as she turned back and woke up Biana and Fitz. After a short, brief explanation of what had happened since they had turned unconscious, they voiced their thoughts as they waited for Sora and Soreas to come.

Biana circled around Brant, who was still encased in Coreana's ice prison. Warily and cautiously, she lifted a single finger and ran it over the icy surface, wiping her finger on the singed fabric of her cape. "I can't believe we missed all the action! I would have given a hundred lusters to see Brant get slayed. Is he dead?"

"Um," said Sophie. "I don't know. Coreana?"

Coreana shook his head. "No, he's not, but since the temperature inside the ice block is way below zero degrees Celsius, he can't do anything to escape unless I release him."

Sophie shuddered, thinking of Fintan's mind healing, where the Council had taken preventive measures and made the temperature super cold. She just liked the fact that this time, she didn't have to wear any ridiculous, thick furry costume to protect herself. Despite that, she still wrapped her cape a little tighter around her, trying to bring as much warmth as possible.

Fitz noticed her shivering, and asked her, "Do you need my cape? I don't feel cold."

Eerily, Sophie was reminded of the time when she and Keefe were in front of the outside of the Sanctuary, and he'd offered her his cape too.

"No t-thanks." This time, she tried not to stutter as much, her voice resisting the cold as much as she can. Besides, this place wasn't as cold as the Himalayas.

Albie cleared his throat. "Anyway, since we have a little free time—"

"One thing, Albie," Mira interrupted him. "We _never _have free time. You should know that by now."

Albie proceeded to roll his eyes. "I just thought you all each would like to share something about yourself that we don't know. So that we can know each other better."

Sophie nearly snorted at that. "Seriously? I think the Black Swan knows _all_ about me already—so what's the point?"

"If you can think of nothing to share, then we don't need your input," Albie replied kindly, and inwardly, Sophie sucked in a relieved breath.

She didn't want to share anything secret—especially if she had to share something super embarrassing about herself.

Biana shrugged her shoulders, blinking her teal eyes as she scooted closer to Sophie, "Sounds fun. Anyway, we have nothing else to do."

Iorgo glanced back at the passageway that led back outside to the Neverseen base corridors. "I just wish that they could hurry up—what's taking them so long?"

"Try rushing here while fighting with two of the Neverseen's collective and dragging an unconscious person here too, Ironic Iorgo," Mira countered sharply. "You might be one of the Black Swan's Collective members now, but that doesn't mean you can forget about all the times when I teased you. It also doesn't mean that you can talk about Mr. and Miss Heks in that manner."

Iorgo looked like he was about to bite back, when Coreana snapped her fingers and soothed, "There, there, don't need to fight."

Instantly, Iorgo and Mira's harsh expressions softened, and they apologised graciously to each other, while Sophie just gaped at Coreana. She'd used the 'breaking the ice' technique again, to clear the tension from the two of them. Even though it was the millionth time Sophie thought that it was so unnatural, she still understood why Coreana was doing this—they couldn't have an argument—not at this sort of timing.

"Right." Mira turned to Albie. "Albie, what were you proposing?"

Albie shot her a grateful smile, then proceeded to explain about his idea. Each of them had to share something about themselves that the others never knew before, and after a person had finished sharing their secret, he or she could pick someone else of their own choice and ask them a certain question that the chosen person had to answer truthfully no matter what.

"I don't like that condition," Biana muttered, and Dex nodded his agreement along with her. Sophie stayed silent, but she also agreed with them. Wasn't Albie being a little too intrusive?

"All right, let's start. Biana, you'll start first."

"Me?" Biana pointed at herself, mouth gaping. "But . . . why me?"

Sophie whispered, "It's actually an advantage. You get to share whatever you like, and you won't have to answer any uncomfortable questions."

At that, Biana brightened up. "All right then. That time when Alvar's pet raptor peed all over Fitz? What everyone didn't know that was it wasn't Alvar who did it—it was me. I bribed that raptor and made him pee all over his head."

A chorus of laughs rang through the cave, and Fitz gaped at Biana, who was laughing uncontrollably too. "You!"

Biana winked at him. "You probably didn't suspect me—I looked _way_ too innocent to pull off such an ingenious prank, right?"

"So Keefe didn't rub off you," Fitz muttered. "It was all you all along."

Biana ignored his snide comment, and pointed at Sophie. "Sophie! I choose you. Here's my question: Who do you like? As in, like, _like?"_

Sophie groaned loudly, but Mira cut her off with a mischievous grin on her face. "Actually, Biana, that question is invalid, as me and Albie already know who Sophie likes."

She winked at Sophie, who gulped.

Biana's jaw fell open. "You know?"

"So, Sophie, who do you pick for your next question?" Coreana asked, looking at her curiously, like she wanted to stare the truth out of her.

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief when she realised she didn't need to answer any question. She stared at the circle of her friends, brooding on who to pick. That was when her mind flashbacked to all the moments when Mira had evaded her probing questions, her eyes shifting side to side uncomfortably each time. Snapping out at her that she didn't need to know. Complaining that her past was hard enough.

She knew that this would hurt Mira, but she mustered her courage and said quietly, "I'd like to know more about Mira's past."

Mira's eyes went wide open, her sky blue eyes more scared than Sophie had ever seen them be. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no."

"But—" Sophie started.

Mira turned away. "I can't, Sophie. I . . ." When she turned back, there were actual tears in her eyes.

Sophie stared at her in wide-eyed shock.

This was the first time she'd ever seen Mira cry.

"Mira," Albie said quietly, pulling her close and stroking her hair gently as she shook uncontrollably in his arms. "Maybe it's time they finally knew."

A terrified sigh raked through Mira, but in the end, she said, "Fine."

She pried herself from Albie's hold, and stared at each of them long and hard before saying, "This is our story."

* * *

**The moment that I've been waiting for since the beginning of time! Okay, maybe not the beginning of time, but since when Albie and Mira appeared. **

**And that part when Mira asked Albie, "What are you proposing?" I really thought that Mira said that Albie was proposing to her, LOL! **

**I can feel the end of this story coming...! ! ! It thrills me! :)**

**Question: When I first joined Fanfiction. net, there were only about 30 KOTLC fanfictions in total. Now, there are a total of 106 awesome fanfictions on this site. Isn't it amazing how far Keeper of the Lost Cities has come? :)**


	71. Chapter 70, Part One

**Word count: 4,810 words.**

**Hello guys! Have you ever noticed that I say 'hello guys' or 'hi guys' as a start to my author's note? I know it's really boring and repetitive, but I really can't find anything else to start my author's note. **

**Nine days since I updated. Hmm, is that an appropriate updating time? What do you guys think? I mean, it'll probably lessen itself to five to six days if I stop procrastinating.**

**Anyway, weird talk aside. This half-chapter is shorter than the last two, but so far it's my favourite half-chapter. Because ALBIE AND MIRA'S PAST! SOME REVELATIONS! AND...Well, if you want to know more, just read this half-chapter :P**

**I reached SEVENTY chapters! Woah, what a big number, to be honest. Thank you, everyone who had supported me through it all. I know I have been saying this for the past I-dunno-how-many chapters, but I can see the end of this fanfiction coming. It's getting clearer and clearer as I progress through the chapters.**

**Now, on to the reviews!**

**messisoccer10: First of all, THANK YOU for thinking my story is one of the best you've ever read. That really made my day, and I couldn't be happier because of you! :))) Secondly, GOOD LUCK on 31st May high school soccer tryouts! I really do hope you make the team, tell me if you do! If you don't, it's okay-I'll be here to encourage you if you need it. Hope you like this chapter! :P**

**daringwolf2000: Yay for agreeing with my question last half-chapter! And LOL, 'our story' doesn't really mean anything, it's just that Mira and Albie experienced it TOGETHER (and probs fell in love in the process, *wink wink*) and that's why it's *their* story. But I love it when people actually care about what's going on in my story, not just read it for the sake of reading! Hope you like this chapter! :))**

**Guest: Thank you so, so much! Hope you like this chapter as well! :)))**

**MagesticalCookie: Yep, the Neverseen are really butts. *tries not to cringe at our word choice* And IKR, I totally ship Albie and Mira. I would call their ship name...Mirabie? Yeah, Mirabie. Sorry if it doesn't sound right. I normally suck at making ship names. Thank you so so much for reading and reviewing, and hope you like this chapter! Your Lodestar story is amazing as well! :) *showers you with love and praises***

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**Chapter 70, Part 1  
**

"Back when I was still in the Lost Cities—that was about when I was seventeen—I'd _finally _manifested as a Vanisher like my mum, and I was really proud of myself as I knew that I was stronger than most of the other Vanishers," Albie said, his eyes blank and empty, like he was recalling something bad that happened in the past.

"But when I manifested, so did my younger brother, who was only _thirteen_ at that time. He had become a Telepath like his dad, and had more potential than a lot of other elves, according to Councillor Terik. So because of that, my family decided to overlook my ability and fawn over him instead. I mean, I'm okay with that, but they completely ignored me, and favoured him. I just didn't get it.

"And because I manifested so late, I was teased by many people—I had to attend the Elite levels a year later than my friends—and my friends slowly drifted apart from me too. I was alone. I was also discriminated against because of my late manifestation, and had to beg my parents to not send me to Exillium, to give me a chance. Nobody else knew that—not even my brother. Even after I got to attend the Elite levels, I was scorned too. Bitter because of the injustices thrown at me, I suddenly decided I wanted to find someone who would understand me, and know how to be there for me when I needed it most."

Mira took his hand, squeezing it slightly as she took over telling the story. "And that's how he found me. Our situations are slightly different, but that made us understand each other even better and encourage each other. I manifested as a Forecaster when I was merely ten years old, and I was ashamed that I actually got such a powerful ability at such a young age—my family and friends hate me for it and because of that, every aspect of my life felt sober and depressing . . ." She closed her eyes, and the memories of the past began swimming in her mind as she put them into words that poured out of her mouth more naturally than she'd expected.

_When she met him, they started to hang out together anytime possible. She didn't have to sit with her judgmental, fake friends that loved to pick out her weaknesses and amplify them, and he didn't have to face the spiteful whispers that floated around him whenever he passed by. But of course, it didn't go unnoticed by other people, and they started to bully them—not physically, but they would shoot them over with even more cutting remarks and malicious insults, until they couldn't take it anymore._

_That was also when Albie told her a secret—he had recently manifested as a Blossomer, but nobody knew that yet. He felt that it was a secret to be kept between him and her, until he was ready to disclose it to the whole world._

_"I don't even know if this world is the perfect world everyone is convinced it is now," he said quietly, the melodious chirping of the birds harmonizing with Mira's soft singing in the background. "Because it sure doesn't feel as perfect—what kind of stupid rules are these? Why do they want to look down and discriminate against Talentless people, and take away their rights and opportunities to be equal to elves with special abilities?"_

_Mira stopped singing, and stared at him. "You aren't Talentless, Al. It's just that you manifested super late and they decided to judge you for that. They're stupid like that. They just fear people that are different from them. I manifested too early; you manifested too late. That's why we're being discriminated against—though it is not fair—at all," she added, "I just wish there's something we can do to change it—not just waste our lives being a second to other elves."_

_". . . Yeah. Sad to say, I have it even worse than you. Everyone has high expectations for my family, and when I turned out like that, they just . . ." He turned away from Mira, and Mira bit the inside of her cheek, letting the lazy wind rustle around her fingers._

_She just wished it could blow her worries away too._

_What they didn't know at that time was that a certain elf with too much gel in his jet-black hair was hiding in the bushes, listening to every word of their conversation, and stroking his chin thoughtfully._

"That's Magnate Leto to be sure," Sophie said, but in her mind she was too shocked. She knew Albie and Mira had had a hard past—she just didn't know so many layers of consequences came with it—and she had a feeling that it was just about to get worse. "So he decided to recruit you?"

"You got that right," Albie confirmed, twisting his fingers together so hard that he felt that they might fall out of their sockets. "He told us all about the Black Swan, and asked us if we were willing to join. Because we were too eager to escape, and we knew that nothing would ever change if we didn't take the first step, we agreed."

"He sent us both notes in the form of Black Swan runes to guide us to the base," Mira added. "He said that if we wanted to do this, we had to leave behind everything that we've ever known—and he just knew that we were most willing to do exactly that. I wanted nothing else to do with my family—so I pulled off a disappearing act—ripped off my registry pendant, threw it into the sea.

"Albie's approach was totally different. He knew that if he disappeared or pretended to be dead like me, it would cause a huge outbreak, and we didn't want that. So he told his parents that he'd be going to the ogre cities to work with the ogres, and Sir Kerlof helped to fake a Markchain and the ogre king's signature of approval. It was taking a huge risk—but that meant that he would still see his family occasionally—and eavesdrop on secret matters and important things and report them to the Black Swan."

"The notes and clues Sir Kerlof gave us were really easy to decipher and read into—and we were sure we would get into the base in no time—but things didn't go as smoothly as we planned it to be. Somehow, when we were still in the Forbidden Cities, narrowing down the locations of where the base could be, Councillor Zarina and an army of goblins showed up and cornered us." Albie shuddered.

"It was a cold, stormy night that time, and it was even starting to rain—it was an advantage to me as I'm a Forecaster, but it was also an advantage to Councillor Zarina, who was a Electrokinetic. When Albie and I managed to defeat all the goblins, we were already exhausted, and Albie was bleeding terribly."

Mira bit her lip, then took a deep breath and went on with a much shakier voice than before. "Councillor Zarina was simply _furious_, and she said that such powerful individuals with dangerous and abnormal mindsets like us shouldn't even _exist_ in this world. That was when I snapped. I struck Zarina with one of my lightning bolts out of sheer anger, but Zarina merely laughed and deflected the lightning bolt—adding more electricity and force to the bolt as it hit me in the arm—right here," she whispered, fingering the frightening silvery-white, jagged scar that ran from her upper arm to her elbow.

"When Mira cried out in agony and collapsed to the floor in a convulsing heap, it was one of the moments I would forever remember. But I was paralysed with a melder—I couldn't move, I couldn't even _shout _at Zarina to shock her with the reality that she'd just almost killed one of her kind. But I didn't need to. Zarina was really, _really_ scared then, and she leaped away without another word—I couldn't blame her too—if she looked at Mira any longer, I was sure that her mind would be broken," Albie said quietly, draping a comforting arm over Mira's shaking shoulders. "Luckily Sir Kerlof came and rescued us before the Council could come and take us away. But the horror show wasn't finished yet."

Mira shuddered and rubbed her arms vigorously, as if trying to rub away the horrors of the past. "It was the part that struck me in the heart the hardest. Sir Kerlof had leaped us to the front of the fashion shop _Firenze Moda_ where the passageway to the Black Swan base was, and Elodie had been there, waiting for us. That time, we didn't know that there was a bad guy, that there was a _Neverseen._ It just struck us that Elodie was probably one of the Black Swan members too, and since even Sir Kerlof didn't say anything about her, we trusted Elodie. And that was when she told us that Sir Kerlof was one of the bad guys—and she was good, trying to stop him. Her words were so convincing that we actually believed her, and so before Sir Kerlof could protest or say anything in his defense, we beat him up until he was even bleeding."

"And then Elodie _laughed," _Albie said, his voice hitching slightly as he recalled what Elodie had said to them.

_The woman suddenly laughed, but it wasn't a charming, cheery giggle. It was a dark, scornful cackle, and it stopped him and Mira in their tracks—as it reminded them of the people who had bullied and teased them to no end . _

_Master Leto had never did that before._

_She pushed them onto the ground with shocking ease, and dug the tip of her boot into Mira's cheek, making Mira cry out in pain as she struggled to get up. At the painful sound, he shot up, but the woman pushed him down again, while maintaining her foothold on Mira's cheek ._

_"__Pathetic," she laughed. "I didn't think the Black Swan would hire such idiots like you two. Let this be a lesson to you—you, darlings, can __**never**__ win this battle if you give other people your trust so easily. I didn't even have to use my mesmerism. If your mindsets were strong enough, you could have avoided this from the start. But it turns out, the Black Swan are too weak. From now on, our group will take over."_

"That was the moment when the nameless enemy made itself clear to the Black Swan—there will be no going back." Mira stared into each and every one of their eyes, letting them know that this was serious. "That was about one and a half years after Former Councillor Fintan resigned from the Council because of the ban on Pyrokinesis, and two months after that, Jolie Ruewen died from the fire that Brant set."

"Elodie had been right—it was a lesson for all of us," Albie added. "But it was too painful for Mira—and she still couldn't believe that we had so easily trusted Elodie. That was why she decided that she couldn't trust you, Sophie, until she knew you better."

"So . . . you trust me now?" Sophie asked, looking at Mira half-questioningly and half-fearfully. What if Mira still didn't trust her? Hadn't she already done enough to prove herself trustworthy?"

Mira shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not." Sophie had to stifle her exasperated groan as she nodded soberly. But then, a thought struck her as her mind further processed what Mira and Albie had told her.

"Hold up a second." She frowned, staring at Albie, and then at Mira, "Exactly how old are you guys? You escaped from the Lost Cities when you were about seventeen to eighteen. And Jolie was around twenty when she passed away. You've got to be around twenty and above at least—and you two don't look the age _at all."_

Sophie swore she saw Mira and Albie's faces turn a shade paler.

"Sophie, all Black Swan operatives that were once from the Lost Cities need to have a disguise," said Coreana quietly. "That's why Sir Kerlof went under the name and appearance of Magnate Leto. Even though Albie and Mira would never be returning to the Lost Cities again, they still have to take precautions."

Sophie, Biana, Dex, and Fitz instantly gasped in unison, and Sophie peered at Albie and Mira in a completely new light. "So . . . your real names aren't Albie Leven and Mira Electra, and your real appearance isn't this too."

"Who are you, really, behind these masks?" Fitz asked, staring at Albie and Mira until Albie started to squirm uncomfortably.

"Guys, Soreas and Sora are going to burst in with the enemy any time soon, and Brant is still not dead," Iorgo jumped in, obviously trying to protect Mira and Albie's true identities. "This is not the time for revelations of our real identities."

"But Albie and Mira have already told us their past," Dex argued. "Surely a past comes with past identities?"

His logic made perfect sense, and Sophie saw Mira and Albie exchange a secret look, before Albie sighed. "Fine. But Mira will not be revealing her identity—you all don't know her anyway, but don't scream or ask questions when I do."

"Albie," Mira pressed. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Albie turned to her with a weak smile. "Yeah, but I think it's fine time I let them know who I really am. They deserve to know."

"What do you mean?" asked Biana. "Wait, we know who you are in real life?"

"You can say that."

Albie dug out a small, rounded vial from his tunic pocket. It contained a strange, silvery liquid, and before anyone could say anything, he downed it in one gulp. Sophie watched carefully as his height shot up and his shoulders broadened, trying to guess who Albie could be. But she had never expected it to be—

_"__Alvar?"_ Fitz yelled, scrambling up from the ground and backing away, gaping at his older brother. Biana was also stunned, staring at him as her trembling fingers pulled at her forest green cape.

Sophie scrutinised him. It had been quite a long time since she saw Fitz and Biana's eldest brother. He had the same cobalt blue eyes as Della, his mother, but this time, his normally gelled-to-perfection hair was mussed up, and his face was coated with exhaustion as Mira—suddenly looking very small compared to him—intertwined their fingers together.

"It must come as a shock to you," he sighed, "but I had to do what I felt was the rightest to me. And yes, what I said about feeling bitter of Mum and Dad fawning over Fitz was all true. You can hate me all you want, but I don't really care anymore."

Fitz looked like he wanted to punch him—but Biana held him back, rushing over to hug Alvar—or Albie?—as she mumbled, "I will never hate you, Alvar. I—I just didn't know you were going through so much. You never told anyone!"

"It was for the best," Mira whispered.

"How do you know what's best for my brother?" Fitz suddenly snapped at Mira, who didn't even flinch.

"Well, I certainly understood him better," she said. "I know you truly love him and care about him—but if you understood him, you would've known that just your presence was hurting him."

Fitz fell silent, then Dex muttered, "Wonderboy got burned."

"Shut up," Biana said. "So, Mira, willing to reveal who you are?"

"I told you, I'm no one you know!" said Mira.

Alvar nodded. "Mira's right—you've never even met her before, so there's literally no point in that."

"So Mira was what you meant when you said that you were juggling two or three girlfriends," Sophie mumbled, her mind fitting the jigsaw pieces one by one. The 'no reason to worry' that he had told her. It all made sense.

Mira looked at Alvar alarmingly.

Alvar grinned. "Don't worry, I only have Mira—I was lying about the other two. For fun, of course—don't look at me like that, Mira."

"Why didn't you tell Mum and Dad about your ability as a Blossomer, then, if you were so eager to get their attention?" Fitz asked indignantly, and Mira and Alvar looked at each other, shaking their heads in exasperation.

"This younger brother of yours just doesn't understand a thing, right, Albie?" Mira asked, clicking her tongue in disapproval.

"Nope, he's just like that," Alvar agreed.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Fitz," said Alvar, not sounding sorry at all. "But you're just too proud to admit it. Because of you, I spent half of my lifetime thinking that nobody would ever really acknowledge me or spoil me, because they were all focused on _you. _And you _are_ spoiled. Why do you think Sophie was scared of you when you became a total idiot and called her _damaged?"_

"I told you, I told everyone, I said I was sorry already, and I truly _am _sorry."

"I didn't say I didn't believe that you meant it. But you had no idea how much impact you caused on Sophie—and it was despite the fact that you _knew_ she was already upholding a lot of responsibilities and guilt, you decided to break her even more. And did you really think saying a simple 'sorry' makes everything all right again? Did you really think Sophie has fully recovered from that incident? Are you, Sophie?"

Sophie ducked her head, turning away from Alvar and Fitz as she didn't want them to see her expression. To be honest, Alvar was right—she hadn't fully recovered from Fitz calling her 'damaged'. She just forgave Fitz because she felt that she ought to . . .

"I believe that's a no," Alvar said quietly.

"Sophie . . ." Fitz tried to turn her shoulders around to face him, but Sophie resisted—though she had no idea why exactly she was resisting in the first place.

"She forgave you because she knew that if she didn't, you would act all bratty and hurt all over again, and cause a whole lot of problems for Mum, Dad, and Biana. And, maybe the fact that she totally has a—"

"SHUT UP!" Sophie yelled, her voice echoing around the cave, silencing Alvar and Fitz's argument. Her fingers shook uncontrollably as she took in a deep breath. "Please, don't argue anymore."

Yes, she didn't want any more fights to take place among them, but it was also maybe because she still didn't want Fitz to know that she had a crush on him.

Alvar had almost said it out loud.

She exhaled her deep breath, and bit her lip. "Please," she mumbled at last when the awkward silence continued to stretch on.

Alvar opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a deafening _CRASH!_ as two familiar redheads rushed into the already-compacted cave, followed by another redhead, and the Shade.

"They finally arrived," Dex muttered—and Sophie duly noted that his eyes were glued on Sora as she kicked the Shade at where the sun didn't shine. The Shade howled, and Sophie turned her eyes away to focus on Jin.

Soreas and Jin were having a staring cum talking match with each other, and even though Sophie couldn't hear any of what they were saying, she felt the sheer, pure emotion that went in between them. She knew that Sora and Jin probably won the prize for the Most Heartbreaking Sibling Drama, but she also knew that Soreas missed Jin very, very much—she just had no idea whether Jin felt the same.

Suddenly, Soreas stalked closer to Jin, and without warning, delivered a stinging slap to her cheek. The sound of the hit vibrated around the whole cave, and everyone stopped to stare at the two siblings.

Jin raised her arm as if she was going to hit Soreas back, then she seemed to decide against it, and brought her hand over to cradle her wounded cheek instead. Her dark aquamarine eyes softened a little as she finally raised her gaze to look at her brother.

Sora gaped in shock as she fought her way over, slotting herself between the two and stretching out her arms in front of Soreas, shouting, "What do you think you're trying to do?!"

Even though her voice was strong and fierce and emotionless, Sophie noted that her expression showed that she was probably about to break down any moment. _She just wants to protect Soreas from Jin, whom she thinks is a plague that's going to spread her evil to Soreas if she doesn't stop her. But even though her mind begs her to drop it, her heart misses Jin a lot. That's probably why her voice and her face contradict each other._

Jin looked taken aback as she backed away a few steps from Sora, her eyes glassy with emotion, hurt one of the most evident. She was biting her lip in a sort of anxious way as she stared at Sora.

Sophie knew that she too missed her siblings more than anyone else. Suddenly, she felt sickeningly pitiful for the three siblings. Here they were facing another episode of drama and heartbreak, and she felt like she wanted to just barge in and help them—but at the same time she knew that this was their own private business. She couldn't invade into their personal feelings.

All of a sudden, the Shade—Orfeo—rushed over and grabbed Jin's arm. "You can't let your feelings overcome your actions! Think of how furious Master Brant and Master Elodie would be!" His voice was pleading, and his face was contorted into a pained expression.

Jin stared into blank space as she spoke in a strange, monotonous voice—as if she was on the verge of deciding something big. "Elodie is . . . dead. Hulsia too. Brant is trapped in an ice block, freezing to death . . . It's only you and me left, Orfeo. What can I do? Declare that I want to continue this . . . sick . . . thing?"

Sophie bated her breath as she hoped for Jin to stop being evil. Was it actually possible?

"Marella," Orfeo insisted, though his voice wavered a little, like he was unsure himself and was trying to convince himself. "We still have Marella."

_"__Marella_ only joined because Elodie kidnapped her and mesmerized her into submission, that poor girl. And now, her Mesmer bond is released. She can't do anything already to help, Orfeo. What else am I supposed to do?"

Orfeo suddenly looked unconvinced, as if his beliefs he built around the Neverseen were starting to crumble and fall apart. "I don't know . . ."

As if on cue, two people bolted into the cave, making the already super-duper cramped cave seem even smaller. Sophie tiptoed, peering over Fitz's shoulder to catch sight of—

"Marella? Sadie?" she asked, her mouth hanging open in wide-eyed shock. "How come you two are here?"

"Never mind that already, Sophie," Sadie said hurriedly, her expression anxious and panicky—making Sophie wonder what exactly had happened. "There's absolutely no time to waste."

"Woah, wait up." Alvar held up his hands, making Sadie and Marella look at him for the first time.

Sadie's mouth fell open. "Albie? Is that you?"

"Long story." He ran a hand through his coffee-coloured hair. "But I'm a little confused here. What happened? Why do we need to hurry?"

Sadie kicked a stray stalagmite that rose from the floor area near her. "Remember when you all entered the Neverseen base through the secret passageway in the Root Abyss? The passageway where you had to dive into the water to reach?"

"Yeah?" Sophie answered, nodding, her heartbeat quickening as her mind ran through the infinite possibilities of what could have happened.

"Did . . . you close the trapdoor that connected the Root Abyss to the cave that led to Adria's training room in this base? You didn't, right?"

Iorgo cursed. "Oh _no._ We couldn't close the trapdoor, and the water continued rushing in . . . half of the base is probably flooded with water right now!"

Sophie's breath hitched in her throat as the gravity of their situation weighed on her. If they didn't make it to the cave in time, they would be drowned here . . .

Although a niggling voice told her that some of them probably wouldn't make it in time to the exit.

"Exactly. Luckily the water hasn't reached our area yet, so we must hurry while we still can escape. There's no time to lose. Come on!" Sadie beckoned a hand, then shot out of the cave again, Sophie and the others followed suit.

That was when a horrifying thought struck Sophie right in the chest.

"WAIT!" she screamed. "What about Keefe?"

It was Sadie's turn to curse. _"Damn _it. I forgot all about him—I thought he was with you. I guess we'll just have to leave him behind—"

"NO!" Sophie, Dex, Fitz, and Biana all shouted in unison, and Sadie let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan.

"Even if we make it there to Keefe in time, the water would already be closing in on us and there'll be no escape!" she explained. "It's not that I don't want to save him—but it's simply impossible!"

"But _wait!_ We can!" Soreas suddenly joined in, his voice practically vibrating with eagerness. "Sophie—that time when you teleported us out of the Neverseen base when Sora was imprisoned there! Without free-falling. You _have_ to do it again! Bring Keefe back here, and teleport all of us back to the Black Swan base!"

Sophie bit her lip until she tasted copper, and even though a thousand voices in her brain told her that it probably had been just a fluke, a bigger and stronger voice told her that Keefe was going to be dead, they were all going to be dead if she didn't manage to teleport them all out of here.

Her boundless desperation and fear must have fueled her power and confidence, because she nodded firmly, and closed her eyes, imagining the glass room with Keefe and Gethen inside, as clear as crystal. She made sure she memorized each and every detail, before pouring in her panic, desperation, fear, and jittery hope. Suddenly, there was a weird sensation of her body stretching like a rubber hand, and the world around her blackened as she dropped into the familiar bottomless hole. As she hit hard ground, she blinked her eyes as the room where Gethen was being held at washed into her sight.

She whipped her head around frantically for Keefe, and saw him squatted in one shady corner of the room, his face buried in his hands as his body shook uncontrollably.

"Keefe!" she shouted, rushing over to him. "Please, we have to get out of here. Fast. Or else we're all dead."

"Dead," he mumbled. "My mum. She's . . . dead—well, according to Gethen, at least."

His words shook Sophie, and she wavered for a second before snapping out of her dazed reverie. "Please, Keefe," she whispered. "I know you're sad and angry and everything in the world I can't imagine, but I need you to be alive. Because—because I need you. To be here with me."

Keefe raised his head to look at her, and the intense emotion in his pale ice-blue eyes he directed at her made Sophie's stomach twist with a weird sensation.

"Please," she begged pleadingly, squatting down quickly to tug at Keefe's arm, totally desperate now. She knew she was probably pushing him too hard, but this was a matter of life and death, and they couldn't—_couldn't—_afford to waste any more time. "We're all waiting for you. I—I—just trust me, okay?"

There was a long silence before Keefe finally mumbled, "Okay. I'll trust you. And—Sophie?"

"Yeah?" asked Sophie.

"I hope you'll trust me too. And, um—sorry if you want it."

He rose up, and Sophie breathed a sigh of relief, but inside she was confused at what Keefe said. She was about to brace herself to get ready for another teleportation across the Neverseen base, when Keefe grabbed her by the waist, pulled her close, and pressed his lips together with hers.

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**Whoopsie, I didn't mean for them to even kiss in the first place. Did I make the right or wrong choice?  
**

***sorry to all Sophitz shippers* Like, REALLY sorry. I know that Albie-Alvar almost told Fitz that Sophie had a crush on him. But their moment will come. Soon. Because I kinda low-key ship Sophitz too, to be honest.  
**

***tries to deny she is Sokeefe trash* *fails terribly***

**Question: How many chapters would you like this story to be? I mean, I know I can feel the end coming soon, but what do you feel is the most appropriate number of chapters (assuming two half-chapters combine to form one full chapter)? **

**Also, how long would you prefer one chapter to be? 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, or 7,000? (That is the range I fall into for this fanfiction. In Payback's A Nightmare, all of my chapters fall into the 4,000s range.)**


	72. Chapter 70, Part Two AKA THE END

**HELLO GUYS! ! ! I have good news and bad news for you all.**

**Good news: this is the last chapter! :D**

**Bad news: this is the last chapter... :'(**

**So, that means I will be crying and laughing and everything at the A/N at the end of this last chapter. I'm trying very hard not to ramble at the starting, leaving it all for the ending. So...READ. And hopefully enjoy.**

**P.S. I'm in an insanely happy mood right now**

**Now on to the reviews. This is the last review-reply I will conduct for this story so people who read the last chapter but didn't review, be sad for yourselves, lol. :P**

**The Glittery Hedgehog Ninja: You get how I feel! Thank you, my fellow Sokeefe shipper! (I'm trying VERY hard not to type in caps now, haha) Hope you like this last chapter! *starts crying again***

**daringwolf2000: First of all, SOrry. This chapter is six thousand, seven hundred and forty-five words long exactly. Slightly more than half of what you were expecting. Second of all, SO SORRY YOU WANTED A FEW MORE CHAPTERS I SQUEEZED EVERYTHING TOGETHER SO THIS IS YOUR LAST CHAPTER MUHAHAHAHA. Okay, sorry for freaking you out with the caps and the evil laugh. ;) Hope you like this last chapter!**

**Jessica: You're still on chapter 49, so you're gonna be insanely disappointed when your request is busted *sheepish smile* Soooorrry! (Okay, I've been apologising a lot) Hope you like this last chapter! :)**

**Babydancer: OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH. You have no idea how much your compliment means to me. My biggest dream is to become an author! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! ! ! Hope you like this last chapter! :))**

**And um, if you were wondering, most of this chapter is fluff, but some of this chapter? Completely different story.**

**Word Count: SEVEN THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED, AND TWENTY-TWO WORDS OF FLUFF AND TRAGEDY.**

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**Chapter Seventy, Part Two AKA THE END**

For the first three seconds, Sophie was absolutely stunned.

Her arms fell limply to her sides as if they had lost their life in them, and her body felt weak, as if she had just turned into a rag doll. Heat rushed up her cheeks as the familiar feeling of Keefe's soft lips on hers became apparent to her.

Keefe . . .

He was kissing her.

For the second time.

Did he like, _like _her? Probably, yes. But the more important question was, did _she?_

Her daring subconscious must have answered her question, because after another few frozen seconds, Sophie finally gave in and wrapped her arms around Keefe's broad shoulders, sank into his warm embrace, and returned his kiss tenderly. A rush of emotions flurried into her heart, making it flutter and her stomach swoop, just like how she'd reacted every time Fitz gave that movie-worthy smile of his.

Fitz . . . what about him? Did she have a crush on him anymore?

Her head whirled and her mind span with new, complicated questions and theories as the two of them finally pulled away after what seemed like a blissful eternity.

Sophie gulped the air to catch her breath, ignoring the smell of old rotten fish that wafted in the air. Keefe was doing the same, his warm breath mixing in with hers as they stared into each other's eyes, not sure what to do now.

Suddenly, Keefe reached for her hands, taking them in his own. His eyebrows were furrowed together, his eyes held a certain emotion Sophie couldn't identify. "Sophie . . . if that bothered you, then—sorry—I know you have a crush on—"

Sophie shook her head, raising her head further to fully meet his eyes, suddenly noticing how tall Keefe was compared to her—he wasn't as tall as Fitz, but he'd certainly grown a few inches since they had joined the Black Swan.

Just then, a horrible thought struck her mind, instantaneously swirling away the foggy mist that had seeped in during the kiss. "Oh no," she whispered, tightening her grip around Keefe's hands as she shouted, "We have to get back to the others. Keefe—don't ask questions—just keep quiet and let me concentrate!"

"Wha—" Keefe started, but Sophie silenced him instantly with a harsh shush, closing her eyes and gathering up all the desperate and panicky emotions swirling around in her heart and mind, so much that all it became was a fierce, emotional storm inside her. She made use of the power of the stormy hurricane to open up a hole in the void, and then together, fingers still tightly interlocked together, the two of them slipped into the deep abyss. Her stomach made that weird feeling as they plummeted down and down. She squeezed her eyes and visualised the outside of the cave, every single crack, every single hairline fissure in the wall, then hoped and prayed with all her heart to let her power get them there.

A loud, thudding sound echoed around the vast, bottomless hole as Sophie and Keefe's feet hit hard ground. Sophie's breath caught in her throat, jerking forward a few steps as she was taken by surprise. The suffocating darkness cleared as quickly as it had come, and Sophie collided face-to-face with a startled strawberry-blonde head.

"Sorry, Dex," she apologised profusely, stumbling back a little as the periwinkle-blue-eyed boy yelped in pain and rubbed his head vigorously. She proceeded to do the same as she looked around the others. Fortunately, the water had not flown until the area they were crowding in yet, but Sophie's sharp ears could pick up a distant whooshing sound, like the sound of a water current. The murderous water of the Root Abyss was coming their way—and they had no time to lose.

She did a quick surveying glance over the whole group. Jin, Orfeo, and Marella looked the most shaken—especially Marella—and Sophie couldn't blame her. She'd just woken up to no idea where she was, and a strange girl—Sadie _could _be counted as strange, Sophie thought—brought her here. She was effectively avoiding Sophie's gaze, and Sophie couldn't blame her—but after they'd survived this—_if_ they survived this—she promised herself she would work things out and clear the many misunderstandings and the immense tension they had in between them.

She still couldn't believe Jin and Orfeo were really going to betray the Neverseen and exchange that for their lives. And she wasn't too sure about leaving Brant in the Neverseen base—water was fire's weakness, but he could spark Everblaze—which could conquer even water. However, she guessed that other necessary actions had to be taken for Brant—which she didn't know what would be.

"Earth to Foster . . ." sang Keefe, pinching her ears playfully and making her jerk up all of a sudden. Her cheeks flushed as he flashed his trademark smirk at her. "Didn't we establish the fact that this is a life-and-death situation, and we can't afford to lose any time?"

"Yeah, Sophie Foster," Mira agreed, making Sophie scowl—Mira never failed to annoy her. "We don't need your spacing out now. C-o-n-c-e-n-t-r-a-t-e. Concentrate."

Sora came up and gave her a confident, reassuring smile, warming Sophie's cheeks—but in the best way. She put her hands on Sophie's shoulders, and said, "You did it more than once. I believe in you."

"I . . ." Sophie blushed, her fingers flying up to tug a loose strand of eyelash as flowery warmth bloomed in her heart. "You guys . . ."

"I may not be your most enthusiastic supporter," said Iorgo, shooting a pointed look at Sora—who just stuck her tongue out in response, "But that doesn't mean I have never put my faith in you before. And now, I'm doing just that. Come on, Sophie. You can do it."

As Sophie stared at him, she remembered Perona, and everything came crashing down like a tsunami again—where _was_ Perona, even? "What . . . about Perona?"

Iorgo visibly flinched, and when Sophie peeked at him, there was evident pain in his eyes—and she wondered what had happened—hopefully nothing bad.

"Perona? She's missing," Sora echoed, confirming Sophie's worst fears and making her gasp in shock. Sora must have seen the look on her face, because she nodded grimly and explained, "Well, when you fainted that time, everyone started shouting and yelling, and it was all. A. Mess. But when we finally calmed down . . . she was nowhere to be seen."

She looked down, suddenly finding her ellinaum-boots very interesting.

Iorgo looked away, and everyone fell silent for a long second before Sophie couldn't take it no longer, and decided to break the silence.

"That reminds me of the time when we faced off against her at the Root Abyss," she muttered, not really liking how everyone's gaze immediately switched to her when she spoke the first syllable of her sentence. "That time, she also did pull of her disappearing act. She just likes to take advantage of everything and escape while she can, huh?"

"Yes. That's why now, you must teleport us back to the Black Swan," said Soreas, nodding his head in agreement to her as his pale aquamarine eyes fixed themselves on her.

Sophie could feel everyone's hope, stress, and desperation piling up on her, and from that moment, she knew that whether she liked it or not, she was going to be the leader that everyone needed her to be.

She bit the inside of her cheek—her mind felt like a thousand ten kilogram weights had been dumped on it—but she knew that she was their only hope to return to the base—and that was the moment when Magnate Leto's voice rang out in her mind, echoing over and over again, telling her to stop doubting herself and become the best she could.

With all that sound, she should have grown a headache—a migraine, even, but instead, his voice seemed to resonate all over her, squaring her shoulders and lifting her head higher to muster up the courage, confidence, and conviction she felt she didn't have. Soon enough, Grady, Edaline, Kenric, Jolie, Estelle, and Madlen's voices joined in with all the other people who had ever supported her, strengthening her positive emotions even more and building her strength to even greater heights as she told everyone to link hands with each other. Powerful, buzzing mental energy swirled about in her mind as she pushed it out with a sharp exhale, imagining the golden threads of energy flowing around every one of them, linking their minds and hearts together.

She was about to tear a hole in the void when suddenly, she felt one of the golden threads fall loose and dissolve into golden dust.

Sophie's eyes flew wide open in shock and surprise as she glimpsed Jin wrench her hands away from the rest of them and vanish into thin air.

Gone.

"JIN!"

Sora's loud, piercing screams filled the air as she tried to break free from Soreas's strong, vice-like grasp, her hands splaying out frantically as if trying to reach Jin—the tip of one of her boots struck Soreas in the gut hard, but he didn't loosen his grip one bit. His jaw tightened and he gritted his teeth as Sora yelled so loudly, her voice hitched halfway, "LET. ME. GO!"

"She's not worth it, Sora!" he said, his eyes begging her to comply. She ignored him, continuing thrashing and screaming—but Sophie knew that even Sora herself knew that it was pointless. Jin had long disappeared—there was no going back for her, and nobody could stop her now.

Soon, she would be dead.

Sophie and the others watched in despair as Sora gradually, slowly stopped screaming as her desperate voice turned hoarse, and her wide eyes brimmed with fresh tears, her knees knocking into each other. Soreas hauled her up by her arms, whispering something to her. It must've worked, because Sora went completely slack, though she didn't stop crying, her body shaking uncontrollably as she lifted her head and looked at all of them in the eye before nodding her head, as if telling them not to worry about her.

Sophie and Soreas exchanged a look with each other, before Soreas's jaw tightened, and nodded once to Sophie. The anxiety in his aquamarine eyes gave his strong act away, but Sophie knew better to protest about it.

Sora and Soreas were strong. They could handle themselves.

Squeezing her eyes shut and trying to block out Sora's heart-wrenching sobs, Sophie mustered up the last of her strength and they dropped into the black, black, abyss of grief. During their teleportation through the hole, Sora stayed strangely silent, and that worried Sophie a lot, but the silence surrounding them helped her to focus on the blank corridors of the Black Swan base and the softness of her dormitory bed.

* * *

They hit the cold hard ground of Sophie and Biana's dormitory, everyone groaning in pain as they struggled to get up—well, everyone except for Sora.

She just sat there in cold silence, her arms wrapped around her knees so tightly her fingers had started to dig into her flesh, causing crescent-shaped dents to show up on her upper thighs. Her long, dark auburn hair was like a curtain, draping itself over the front of her face, and Sophie couldn't see what her expression was. She bit her lip until she tasted copper, and debated on what to do.

Sora and Jin were twin sisters. They were the closest until Jin decided to turn over to the Neverseen. They missed each other—there was no denying it. They missed each other very, very much. So what was the problem nobody seemed to see except for Jin? What was Jin so worried about that she had to stay at the Neverseen base and die by drowning?

Did she feel that she couldn't breach her loyalty to the Neverseen? No, that couldn't be. She herself had said that she was tired of the Neverseen as so many members were defeated, and she felt like giving up. She'd said that to Orfeo herself, and Orfeo was still here. Unless that was all a big act that she put up and Orfeo didn't know that . . .

Her head felt like a mess.

Her head _was_ a mess.

She felt like a mess.

She _was_ a mess.

"Ugh . . ." Sophie mumbled, reaching up to pick out a loose eyelash, then stopped herself before she could start the nervous habit all over again. _Old habits really are hard to change._

"Now wha—" Dex started, casting a worried look at Sora, but he was rudely cut off when Sora suddenly came back to life, jerked her head up, lunging toward Orfeo in an almost savage way. Her movements were strangely fluid and nimble for someone who'd just broken down, and Sophie and the others watched in both fear and fascination. She took Orfeo by surprise, and she grabbed him by his collar tightly—her fists clenching so hard that her knuckles turned sheet white—as she pulled him toward her, a dangerous, glint in her pale aquamarine eyes which showed nothing but pure rage.

"You," she said through gritted teeth. Her posture was rigid straight and outright, but Sophie could see her free hand trembling slightly as she continued, "Tell me why my sister did that!"

Her words were childish and whiny, but the way she said them made them sound scary, and something to fear of, because everyone flinched, including Orfeo, who let Sora hold him in her grip, staying silent the whole time.

"Sora . . ." Soreas tried, but Sora ignored him, keeping her sharp gaze on the Shade.

When Orfeo kept silent still, Sora's eyes flashed dangerously and she repeated, in a slower pace, "Why did my sister leave us?" She tugged on his collar tightly, almost making him choke.

"I don't know!" he howled, trying to wrench away from Sora—but she proved too strong for him. Her strength in her actions seemed to be fueled with rage and adrenaline as her eyes turned dangerously dark—almost as dark as Jin's—as the Terrakinetic and the Shade stared at each other for a long three seconds before Keefe cleared his throat awkwardly, making Sophie and her friends turn toward him—everyone except for Sora, but even she seemed to be listening.

He said quietly, "He's telling the truth, Sora."

"Yeah," Iorgo added, sending a pleading look at Sora for her to stop.

"I—I—" Sora faltered for a split second, before something in her seemed to have snapped, and she broke down, shouting furiously, "I missed her, okay? And I still do. Why does no one seem to understand?"

In a blink of the eye, a wild flurry of dark shadows pushed Sora back roughly, making her stumble back a few steps from Orfeo, almost losing her balance as she coincidentally landed into Dex's arms. All of them stared at the Shade with mirroring fearful expressions as he stalked closer to Sora until they were inches apart again.

"Listen," he said, his voice as dark as his eyes. "Don't think you're the only person who will miss her. I do too. And I'm sure your brother does too—"

"Don't put words that I didn't say into my mouth!" Soreas shouted abruptly, but his eyes were misty as he looked away. Biana smiled sadly as she took his hand, patting his back comfortingly.

"Wait," said Sora, untangling herself from Dex and walking toward Orfeo, a new expression in her eyes. All anger gone, she looked thoughtful as she tilted her head and surveyed the Shade with an unreadable expression. "You . . . miss her? Does that mean you—"

"What do you think?" His eyes flashed with defiance, but there was a tinge of embarrassment hidden inside too, making Sora's lips curl up slightly. "Why did you think I would give up on the Neverseen so suddenly, just like that? Of course I did it for her! All for her . . ." He trailed off as he let out a wistful sigh that quickly turned gloomy. "But now she's gone for good."

Sora stared at him dubiously as she said slowly, "So you really _don't_ know why she suddenly ditched us like that?"

"Really." He held up his hands, as if he was trying to make it clear to all of them that he meant no harm. "And . . . sorry for overreacting and attacking you."

"I'll never forget that, by the way," Soreas warned, causing the Shade's lips to curl up with a smile, and it grew even wider as he faced Sora again.

His eyes softened as he looked at her. "You remind me so much of your sister. Strong, talented, fierce, beautiful—"

Sora looked especially gleeful as she shoved him playfully. "Sorry, but you're not my type."

Dex coughed. "What _would_ be your _type,_ then?"

Sora winked at him. "Oh, wouldn't you like to know."

"Okay," Soreas cut in, before the conversation got any weirder. "I think since we're all back, we should go and report to Sir Kerlof to prevent him from worrying so much. And Adria and Sam."

"You can't forget Iggy!" exclaimed Sophie, suddenly feeling lighter when she thought of the blue-furred imp.

Everyone's faces lit up—even Albie and Mira's—except for Iorgo, who looked downcast as he averted his eyes from everyone's concerned gazes.

Sophie took a deep breath. "Iorgo," she said softly, forcing him to look at her. "Perona will be alright, no matter where she is. She can protect herself, and when she thinks of you, I promise you she'll smile—I've seen her do that before. Just . . . believe in her . . . all right?"

When Iorgo didn't answer, Sophie added a pathetic-sounding "Please?"

She held her breath as the seconds ticked by.

Thirty-six seconds passed before he finally mumbled, "Okay."

"Sorry to interrupt the moment," a voice behind Sophie said, making her jump, "but where am I?"

Sophie turned around to face Marella, and inwardly winced—but it must've shown in her expression too because Marella blinked her eyes and took a step back, looking away.

"Sophie . . ." she whispered. "I don't hate you. I—I just—I was jealous, okay? And . . . not remembering a single thing really sucks. A lot."

"I know," Sophie admitted grudgingly, not wanting to tell her about the many sleepless nights she spent in the Black Swan thinking about what went wrong with her friend. When Marella had first appeared as a member of the Neverseen and a powerful Pyrokinetic, Sophie was seriously shocked. And scared. And panicky, thinking, _what happened to Marella?_

But yeah, she could _definitely _relate to not remembering a single thing. She often felt that way when the Black Swan hid secrets from her that she felt like she ought to know about, and the feeling of helplessness gave her a drowning feeling every time it came about.

"And . . . I'm really sorry." Marella gave her a genuine, awkward smile as she reached her hand out. Sophie took it, but then immediately retracted her hand back, gasping.

"What is it?" asked Marella, hurt flashing across her ice blue eyes.

Sophie gave her an apologetic smile, hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong way. "Sorry—it's just that your hand is _burning."_

"Oh yeah." Marella smiled sheepishly, her cheeks flushing red as she picked at her fingers nervously. "I always forget about that. I'd just manifested as a Pyrokinetic four days before I couldn't remember a thing, and it was _really_ hard to control. I scared Jensi out of his wits once—because my hair lit up on fire on its own accord—but yeah, somehow I can control it much better now."

"Brant must've trained you like how Fintan trained him," Fitz said quietly, and Sophie could see his fingers shaking as he stared at Marella. A quick glance across the room showed that most of them looked afraid of Marella—and Sophie honestly couldn't put the blame on them—everyone was afraid of Pyrokinetics after all the horrible incidents that prominently featured Everblaze.

"Hmm, yeah—I guess so." Marella acted so nonchalant about it that it sent eerie chills down Sophie's spine. "Though"—she suddenly sobered down, looking down at her hands sadly—"I don't get why people are so afraid of fire—I mean, yes, it can be used for bad things, but it's just another elvin ability after all. And, it also can be used for good things. Just look at how Balefire changed our lives for the better. It was only banned after they tried to spark Everblaze. If only Everblaze—this thing—didn't exist in the world at all . . ."

"And with your willingness and help, we can accomplish just that," an all-too-familiar voice from behind them sounded, and all of them whipped their heads around to see Magnate Leto walk in, wearing a dusty white coat that scientists wore. He looked weary, dark shadows circling the bottom of his eyes as Sophie gaped at him in wide-eyed shock.

"How did you know we were back here?" she asked, tugging on a loose eyelash, then immediately whipping her hand away in humiliation as Magnate Leto clicked her tongue at her in disapproval.

"Why, Miss Foster—it seems like old habits die hard. And you kids were talking so loudly that I could hear it from even my office." He sent a sharp stare at Orfeo and Marella. "Attempt to pull of any nonsense, and you will face the consequences."

The two of them nodded silently, and Sophie swallowed the huge lump in her throat. She had never heard Magnate Leto speak so strictly before—and she had a clear idea of what the consequences were going to be if they really violated the rules he set for them . . .

"Good." He nodded, then fished out a tiny, rounded vial from his white lab coat. Inside the vial, a silvery, translucent liquid was contained, and when he swirled the bottle, the liquid glimmered. It had a hypnotic look to it, and Sophie had to struggle to remember what they were doing.

"Do not look at it directly for too long, Miss Foster," he warned, shooting a sharp look at Sophie. "I got this from Mr. Elwin, and he was _very_ skeptical about handing this substance over to me. This liquid is called Wanghuo, the name coming from the Chinese characters 忘火—which means 'forget fire', and I designed it with a few other scientists over the many years—and now it's finally finished and perfected. Wanghuo is supposed to make a Pyrokinetic forget the command to summoning Everblaze, and we figured if we managed to use it on Fintan, it would be highly effective. But of course, if Miss Redek wishes never to summon Everblaze again, deliberately or not, I could let you consume this."

Sophie glanced sideways at Marella, but her expression was unreadable. She counted the seconds as they went past in silence. She was about to die of suspense when Marella finally broke the silence. "Give the vial to me."

* * *

"Adria!" Coreana cried out as she rushed forward to pull her best friend into a hug. Adria smiled and rested her head on Coreana's shoulder, turning back to glance sadly at her parents before returning the hug to Coreana as tightly as she could.

Sophie watched at the side, smiling unconsciously to herself as she gazed at the two friends embracing each other in happiness. Coreana had dragged Sophie along with her to see Adria, telling her that she would feel better if there was someone with her to face Adria's parents. And when she said that—she had looked a little nervous—but that was inevitable as Adria's parents were once members of the Neverseen before they were captured by the Neverseen for attempting to betray them.

Truth to be told, Sophie was a little intimidated by Adria's father and mother too. Kelsen and Nividia Lentz were both tall and towered over Sophie, their shoulders broad and their muscles evidently shown as they flexed their arms. They could easily injure someone.

_And they don't remember who Adria was, _Sophie thought, shuddering as she rubbed her upper arms. _Adria looks so sad._

Adria and Coreana pulled back from each other, and Adria sighed. "I'm just glad that you all are all right. I know I must seem selfish—escaping from danger because of my parents—"

"No, it's perfectly alright," Coreana cut her off, correcting her as she offered her a firm smile. "We all understand." Her eyes softened and filled with sadness as she glanced over at Adria's parents. "Any luck with them?"

Adria shook her head sadly. "No, but if they can't remember, then I'm just going to have to try and try and try until they do. Washed memories don't go away that fast. I think if I stay with them long enough, it can trigger something in their memory."

Coreana smiled at that. "Good. Do you want me and Sophie to go and talk to them?"

Adria's ice blue eyes flickered over to Sophie, and then to her parents, who were staring at her. She sighed deeply and hesitated for a while before nodding her head slightly. It was the slightest dip of her head, but Coreana took that as a full confirmation, and tugged Sophie over to Adria's parents.

"Hello," Coreana said politely, giving them a warm smile. In the corner of her eye, Sophie could see Adria watching them with a distressed look. Kelsen had dark coffee-coloured hair that fell in front of his forehead in thin bangs, and piercing ice blue eyes that bore a striking resemblance to Adria's. Nividia had flowing long blonde hair that curled around her shoulders, and sea blue eyes that seemed to glow with radiance.

Coreana elbowed her, and Sophie hissed in pain.

"Right," she said in a slightly strained voice, forcing a smile that felt more like a grimace. "I'm Sophie Foster—nice to meet you."

Coreana mouthed, _NOOOOO _to her, and Sophie realised her mistake too late as Kelsen and Nividia exchanged a glance with each other and muttered, "Moonlark?"

Coreana gave her a withering look, before nervously tucking a strand of her ash-blonde hair behind her ear and explaining—basically, lying—that Sophie was not a moonlark, and there was nothing to worry about. They seemed to believe Coreana, and nodded their heads. But the troubled emotion in their eyes told Sophie that they hadn't forgotten anything, and Coreana seemed to know it as well. Saying a rushed goodbye to Adria's parents, she walked over to Adria as smooth as a breeze, and shot her a look that seemed to say, _They've remembered something—thanks to Sophie. Go and jog their memory more. Oh, and don't thank me—thank Sophie._

Adria turned and smiled at Sophie, who smiled back uncomfortably. But her heart warmed when the thought of having helped someone floated into her mind, and she delved into the happiness and bliss that had started to swirl around her, making her feel loved.

* * *

"So," Keefe said, as Sophie swung her legs in the air, "I've been thinking."

They were sitting on two chairs in the empty training room, and Sophie felt that she really had missed it. She breathed in the moist air, remembering that the entrance to Root Abyss was just about ten to twenty meters away from them. She shivered, despite the warmth of the room. She didn't want to go back to the horrors of the Neverseen base ever again.

The Black Swan had sent out a few members to inspect the Neverseen base, and it was completely flooded. Several Hydrokinetics were patched out to move the immense amounts of water back into the chasm, and when they combed through the base, they found Brant, frozen by Coreana's ice prison, and drowned by the water of Root Abyss. There was no mistake.

He was dead.

The Black Swan also hauled out other remaining members of the Neverseen and informed the Council about it. Strangely, the Council had listened, posting them directly to Exile. It all seemed so peaceful now as the last of the Neverseen was already captured, and sent to prison. But Sophie wondered if the Council did learn from their mistakes, or were just acting in front of the face of evidence.

But one thing was made clear to all of them: the Black Swan would never be credited for their help. Initially, Sophie was angry, but now, she was just content with helping and saving the lives of many innocent people and her loved ones.

"Hey, are you listening?" Keefe asked, nudging her as she stared into blank space. One hand was curled around his arm as she sighed, and turned to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"Did you tell Fitz?"

Sophie didn't need to ask "About what" as she knew exactly what Keefe was talking about. She hid a smile in the corners of her lips as she recalled yesterday—that fateful day when she had finally told Fitz that. She. Liked. Him.

Oops, she forgot to add a 'had' in between 'she' and 'liked'.

Fortunately, he had took it way better than she had expected, even laughing it off as he told her that he didn't mind, and he'd looked surprised when she admitted that she was over him already.

Maybe good friends were all they would be. The past Sophie would have felt sad at that, but the new Sophie was all right with that.

"Yeah, I told him," she replied, before Keefe could tease her for blanking out _again_, "and he was totally cool with it. I expected a lot more—but I guess little drama is better."

"So . . ." Keefe drawled out the single syllable, his expression hesitant as he blurted out, "Do you still like him?"

Sophie sighed, and shook her head. She had a very good idea why Keefe was reacting so strongly, but she didn't say anything of that sort as she whispered, "No. I'm over him already."

Somehow.

It had come naturally, so naturally that Sophie didn't even notice it until Coreana pointed it out to her—she had a knack for reading into relationships, romantic or platonic.

Keefe smirked. "I was hoping you would say that."

Sophie rolled her eyes as she swatted away his arm that had come to drape around her shoulders. "You don't have to throw yourself at me, Keefe. I can decide on my own feelings myself."

"I already know them."

Sophie sighed for what seemed like the millionth time already this day. Of _course—_how could she have forgotten that he was an Empath—and a super annoying one at that?

"And I just have to say"—he wrapped his arm around Sophie's shoulders, ignoring her protests—"wow, Foster. You surpassed what I had in mind."

Sophie gave him a dry look, though inside her heart was already starting to pick up. "What _did_ you have in mind?" Somehow, with Keefe, she could communicate sarcastic thoughts that she'd normally keep in her mind into words. Maybe their personalities clicked together better than she'd thought.

She knew Keefe could sense her jumpy emotions, and her heart just began to palpitate faster as he gave her one of his best smirks. "What I had in mind was . . . _this."_

Sophie had just enough time to think _wrong question to ask _before Keefe lifted her chin, forcing her to stare into his mesmerizing, ice-blue eyes. She blinked her eyes wildly as Keefe leaned closer and closer to her. Sophie closed her eyes, bracing herself . . .

A few silent seconds passed before a silly, high-pitched falsetto rang in her ear, making her wince, "Sophie, Gigantor here, did you miss me?"

Sophie's cheeks flushed red as she ripped open her eyes, yelled and scraped her chair backwards away from Keefe, who had an impish smile plastered on his lips as his eyes met hers. Sophie opened her mouth to speak, her veins burning with outrage.

"Keefe Sencen, you—"

She was silenced by his lips colliding with hers, and she sighed in defeat as he snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.

When they pulled apart, Sophie glared at Keefe. "That was totally uncalled for."

Keefe smirked, pinching her cheeks as she flushed pink. "Oh, but Foster, you know you love it."

Sophie took a deep breath, knowing what she said next would totally damper the happy mood. "Keefe . . . what about . . . _her?"_

Keefe faltered, biting his lip. He looked down, twining and untwining his fingers in an anxious manner. "I . . . don't know. The planting ceremony is next week. I don't know if I should go. Not sure about my father too. It"—his face contorted in pain—"It's all too indefinite. I don't know what to do anymore."

Sophie placed a comforting hand on his back, and wrapped her fingers together with his, hoping that it would provide him with the support and love that he needed. "We all have family problems."

"Like you. You're one great example—let's stop talking about me and talk about you." He turned to her, still holding her hands as he asked, "Did you talk to Madlen about the whole thing?"

Sophie nodded, recalling her conversation with Madlen. "It was kind of awkward at first, but after that, it was okay. He . . . really misses Estelle, and he was glad that I finally knew the truth.

"And about the Mysterium incident . . . well, guess what? We found out it was linked to the protection amulet he gave me. I asked him where he'd gotten it. He told me that Magnate Leto had given it to him, and it turned out that Magnate Leto had hid it in my human house, and when my house was transported to Mysterium, he replaced the real one with a duplicate just in case—then gave the real one to Madlen and Estelle, letting them know that they should prepare for the moonlark's arrival.

"Oh, and yeah. He admitted that he blamed and hated me for Estelle's death at first—but he grew to forgive me. And . . . I don't want to blame myself, but I know I was the one who caused Estelle's death. But I'm not going to feel guilty about it, so you guys don't worry, okay?"

Keefe heaved out a breath. "Okay. But damn, they make a good couple. Just like you and me." He winked at her, and Sophie gave in to the temptation to smile at him.

"Speaking of good couples . . . Dex and Sora make one," she said, thinking of the two of them. She was kind of conscious about the fact that Dex had had a crush on her, but she was happy that he'd found someone else that could treat him even better. She also felt that he was good for Sora, and the two seemed to really enjoy each other's company.

"Yup," agreed Keefe. "Speaking of the others, why don't we meet them again in your dormitory for the last time? We're moving back to the Lost Cities, aren't we? How do you think Dex and Sora feel about never seeing each other again?"

Sophie gave him a weird look. "Aren't Sora and Soreas coming to the Lost Cities with us? They have no family, and Magnate Leto feels that it would be better for a few Black Swan members who are children to have a post in the Lost Cities, so that we wouldn't complain that the Black Swan hides too many secrets again." She let out a laugh, surprised still at how naturally it came nowadays.

Keefe cheered when he heard the good news, and Sophie laughed with him, knowing that she should treasure every precious moment, and make it last as long as it could, as nothing lasted forever, not even happy endings.

"Alright," she said, getting up from her chair, Keefe doing the same, "Let's go see the others."

"I wanna tease Fitzie-boy about Adria," Keefe agreed, heading toward the door.

Sophie didn't answer. Her crush on Fitz might be long gone, but that didn't mean that she couldn't be overprotective of him—that was something she was certain of.

"I don't know if Prentice is really going to be all right," she said, changing the subject. "I know that Magnate Leto assured us again and again that he's steadily recovering and will soon be able to walk around and use his abilities, but . . . he's never really met me before. I know Coreana and the others would tell him all about me, but he's the one who fought so hard to keep my existence a secret."

Keefe took her hand, forcing her to look into his eyes. "As the old dude said, don't worry about Mr. Keeper. Even if you don't have the chance to meet him now, there will sure be many opportunities in the future."

"That's for sure," she agreed. "But I don't know if the Council is going to accept Prentice back into society—seeing how we totally breached Exile's security system and stole him away."

Keefe chuckled and pulled the back of her hand to his lips, taking her by surprise. "I think they've given up working out the Mysterious Miss Foster's secrets by now."

* * *

"Are you ready?" Dex asked Sophie as she slung her purple backpack over her shoulder, crammed with the many goodies she'd received from the Black Swan members.

Sophie nodded, taking a last long look at her surroundings. Dull corridors, simple dormitories, grey floors, grand dining room, Guster training room, Polyglot training room, Telepathy room, many more . . . she preferred the comfort and luxury of elvin homes to the simplicity of the Black Swan base, but she'd grown to love it too—just in a different way.

She was going to miss this place.

Biana smiled brightly as she ran a brush through her chocolate brown hair. "Back to Everglen, back to Foxfire, back to Mum and Dad, and of course, Alvar, also known as Albie Leven. I _can't_ wait."

"You got that right," Fitz told her, looking more excited than ever as he turned to Soreas and Sora. "Don't worry, guys. It'll be fine—we'll be your friends there, and the Council has approved of your education in Foxfire. They said they'd monitor you twenty-four seven, though."

Soreas sighed. "As expected."

Biana turned back and grinned at him. "Like Fitz said, don't worry about it, Soreas. You'll have me—um, and everyone else too, of course."

Sophie hid a smile in the corner of her lips as a faint blush tinted Soreas's cheeks. Sora looked half-amused and half-annoyed as she clapped her brother's back harder than she should have.

Sophie went up on tiptoes, and hugged Madlen tightly. "I'll miss you, but I'll hail you on my Imparter sometimes."

"Just don't let the Council find out," he warned as he returned the hug.

Magnate Leto sighed. "You kids shouldn't worry too much, you know," he said, surprising everyone as they turned their heads to look at him. "You're only teenagers. Go and enjoy your life while you still can. We're lucky it all ended so soon."

"You're right," said Sophie quietly, speaking her thoughts out loud. "I want to see Grady and Edaline again. And Sandor, of course." She shot a knowing look at Keefe, reminding him of his dirty prank he'd pulled in the training room.

He winked at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking about.

"Right, Iggy?" she asked the imp that was curled up on her shoulder, hiding behind her hair that had grown from a short bob into a blond curtain of shoulder-length hair.

Iggy squeaked, and let out one of its infamous Iggy farts, making her wrinkle her nose in disgust.

"Ew, don't let me near you for three hours from now," Sora complained, plugging her nose in an attempt to block out the stink. "I swear that infernal creature is nothing but trouble."

She had tied back her auburn hair into a high ponytail, making her face look brighter and younger than before. Her pale aquamarine eyes sparkled as she twirled around, her laughs sharp and lively. She looked happier than anyone had ever seen her been. Sophie was relieved that the two siblings were happy to move to the Lost Cities, although they were sure to face a _lot _of discrimination.

"I wonder how Albie will look when he sees us in Everglen," Soreas said. "It's going to be fun with him there. Though I'm not really looking forward to Alden and Della Vacker as our parents."

Biana assured him that her parents were kind and knew how to treat them nicely. Sophie gazed at them. Fitz and Biana were so lucky to get two more siblings when she had to remain as a single child. She wondered how it was like to have a sibling in the Lost Cities—regardless of whether he or she was younger or older than her. She began to really miss Amy—but then she reminded herself that she could watch her on her Spyball whenever she wanted to.

"Returning to my father," Keefe mumbled. "I don't think that's going to be fun, or exciting."

Sophie squeezed his hand comfortingly. "You know you can come over to Havenfield whenever you're feeling down."

He smiled gratefully at her—not one of his usual smirks, but a genuine smile that made Sophie's heart skip a beat.

Marella stayed silent the whole time. Sophie knew she was thinking about all the horrible crimes she'd committed, and she didn't even do it on her own accord.

She bit her lip, debating on whether to approach her to leave her alone, when Magnate Leto held out a transparent crystal that glittered in the faint sunlight filtering through the yellow-stoned windows, casting a shimmering path across the drab grey floor of the corridor. "This crystal will take you to Everglen, where your families, old and new, will meet you."

"We'll miss you," Coreana, Adria, Iorgo, Mira, and Sam called out simultaneously, as each of them said their goodbyes to them.

Sophie's eyes watered as she hugged each of them. She might not know them very well, especially Sam, but they were her friends all the same, and she sure was going to think of them back in the Lost Cities. She thanked Coreana profusely for 'breaking the ice' whenever she needed it. She told Iorgo not to worry about Perona, and gave him an extra big hug—knowing very well that she was never going to hear the end of it from Keefe. She promised Mira she would watch over Albie when she was in the Lost Cities. She praised Sam for being such a loyal and wonderful friend to Adria and she wished Adria the best of luck with her parents.

Dex whooped, pumping a fist in the air. "Can't wait to see the triplets again—who knows what sorts of mischief they'd come up with?"

Biana tossed her hair over her shoulder, her teal eyes glimmering—because of the light of the crystal or the happy tears welling up in her eyes, it was impossible to tell—as she said, "Back to doing makeup with my mum—I didn't realise how much I'd missed that."

Keefe forced a confident smirk on his lips as he declared, "I'm not that happy to return to my father, but I'm going to show him that nothing can stop me, most definitely not him."

Fitz stared into the radiant light of the crystal as he murmured, "Back to Telepathy lessons with Tiergan and Sophie."

Marella licked her lips nervously, and whispered, "I'm ready to turn over a new leaf and control my Pyrokinetic abilities, and change the world for the better."

Soreas and Sora just exchanged a smile as they linked hands with each other.

Sophie stepped forward, gazing wistfully at the glow of the transparent crystal. The light promised her of a homecoming. It promised her of nothing but happiness. Bliss. Laughter. Family. Friends. Much, much more.

She looked around at her friends, both old and new, and said, "Let's go."

Together, they stepped into the light, and let it whisk them away to a new, unknown future.

It had been a long and hard journey, but it also had been a rewarding one.

For the second time in her life, Sophie Foster was going home.

**THE END**

* * *

**(okay, after this I am going to talk in capital letters. if you can't stand caps, avoid reading this acknowledgements note.)  
**

**ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS **

OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH. LOOK AT THOSE TWO LOVELY YET HEARTBREAKING WORDS.

THE END.

I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER TYPE THOSE TWO WORDS FOR THIS STORY.

I have never finished any story before, let alone a fanfiction. And of course I always get jelly (jealous) when I see my fellow fanfic writers mark their lovely fanfictions as 'Completed'. I have always visualised different ways of how I would write my first official acknowledgements note. Of course some of you won't get the sheer JOY and HAPPINESS and PURE BLISS I am feeling right now. Hmm, maybe I''m overreacting. But STILL!

Anyway, _Keeper of the Lost Cities: Neverseen_ was the first ever fanfiction I'd written. (NOT counting those Rainbow Magic ones I used to write when I was seven.) It took me around a year and a quarter to finish writing it. And over this period of time, I have grown up a lot, thanks to this fanfiction.

I'd honed my writing skills, felt terrible and irritable when I got no reviews, cried when I thought I wanted to discontinue this fanfiction, and became so gratified and touched when my awesome readers and reviewers begged me not to discontinue it, telling me that my story was really good and I shouldn't discontinue it.

That time, I was running on really low self-esteem and didn't believe I could actually muster up anything to finish this fanfiction, when I got so so so embarrassed by my writing and sighed when some stories received an endless amount of praises, reviews, favourites, follows, while I got none...at that time, it was like something inside me snapped and I was thinking, 'you know what? what's the use of continuing to write this useless thing when nobody seems to truly appreciate it?' But I was proved wrong by you all. You guys are AMAZING, and I would like to thank everyone that has ever read a chapter, a line, or even a word of my story.

First of all, I would like to express my thanks to **twinkletoestbh**, whose Neverseen fanfiction was the one to inspire me to write one of my own. I'm sad that you've given up on it, but your fanfiction became the turning point in my life, and writing this story has brought so much happiness into my life, and it's all thanks to you. I would have never became the person I am now without you. Am I stretching it a little too far, maybe, but yes, I mean every word of it. AND THANK YOU FOR SPAMMING ME WITH REVIEWS I APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH ;)

Secondly, my first reviewers ever, **JanusKate** and **purplicouspolkadot. **You two are the ones that motivated me to write more when I published my first chapter, and your support and love has been really great. Thank you.

**Skydancer8, RareSpecies, BookButterfly11**, your reviews made me do a happy dance around my room every time I read them. Your excitement is so infectious, and I'm glad that you all actually like my story!

To all the anonymous guests that reviewed! I always wish you'll take the trouble to identify yourselves, but if you don't want to, it's perfectly fine. I love every one of you.

**ForeverFreeFall** and **Kari2678,** Thank you so so much for being two of the most supportive fans out there. Even though you aren't reviewing my story anymore, I still appreciate everything you did for my poor little fanfiction. *showers you with love and candies*

**EVERBLAZE,** I know you probably won't be reading this anymore, but a tiny part of me keeps on holding that hope. Your reviews always make me happy, and it was so happy to read reviews from one of my best friends that I know in real life. But now, I don't really know if we're even friends anymore, and I know you don't like KOTLC already. However, I'd always looked forward to your reviews, and they were always motivating me to push on with my story even though I might feel bored of it at times. You were also the one to encourage me to chase my dreams of becoming an author and telling me that I definitely could become one. Bonny, I hope I don't have to say anymore.

**Readergirl6262, **you're a great reviewer and encourager. You know how to point out faults in a story and help make it better, and you motivated me not to give up when I wanted to. So here's a big THANK YOU!

**Crazy keeper** and** Anonymous, Sugarspice, Swizzlespice, TeamFitz** and **Madison Keilty,** thank you for bringing a smile to my face whenever I read your reviews. Your little snippets of praises and hilarious words are what make me feel better when I am down!

**A person, **I can't express how much gratitude I have for you. You were one of the few people who reviewed for most chapters, and your unwavering support is always something I look forward to. Your reviews are short and sweet, and I absolutely love them! Thank you so so so much! ! !

**pen. edge**, you are one of the sweetest reviewers and authors I have encountered, and your praise and encouraging words always don't fail to brighten up my day! When I wanted to discontinue my story, you stood up for me and told me firmly about what's right and what's not right, and you're one of the many reasons I continued! Although you have disappeared off the face of the fandom for now, you still hold a place in my heart.

**Another person** and **fiona, ferntailwarriors, xXLemonCupcakeXx, jgv, gni,hgkjgg, Warriors, Mrs Keefe Sencen, A Fan, Sophie Foster, Orion, sara, cow, random, Nikky, hi, QueenFantasy **your inputs in the story make me smile, laugh, and even frown in amusement sometimes with the weird usernames. You all are amazing!

**daringwolf2000, **You. Are. Amazing. Simply amazing. You reviewed for most of the chapters I post, and they always make my day! Words cannot describe how grateful I am toward you. You are definitely one of the bigger reasons why I can write this fanfiction until the very end. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! ! !

**Fangirl1, **your reviews lasted but a few chapters, but nevertheless your reviews are like sugar to my lips. (I totally made that simile up.) Thank you for making me smile and dance happily around the room like a freak! (I have gotten way too many weird looks from my sister.)

**waterfallphoenix, StarDreamer02, ** CAN WORDS EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU TWO? Not like romantic love, but platonic love, of course. :) You two write some of the sweetest reviews ever, and I always enjoy seeing you on Tumblr and liking and reblogging your stuff. ;) And both of your fanfictions are simply amazing!

**nena, **or **messisoccer10, **you are probably the sweetest reviewer here. you always shower me with love that I totally don't deserve, and tell me that my work is amazing when i don't think it is. I am repeating this a lot of times, but THANK YOU SO MUCH! ! ! :)))

**The Glittery Hedgehog Ninja, xoYanaaa, JoySeph13, and Too Many Booty Calls To Count, **your love for this story is very very much appreciated. I love you guys so much :)

**MagesticalCookie, **I love your Lodestar story and it makes me so happy to find out that you like my Neverseen story as well. You are so sweet, and your kind review makes me so giddy! :D

Thank you to

waterfallphoenix, twinkletoestbh, Too Many Booty Calls To Count, The Glittery Hedgehog Ninja, TeamFitz, Swizzlespice, Skydancer8, Reyna Kane, Purplicouspolkadot, messisoccer10, mayazdeb, JoySeph13, ForeverFreeFall, daringwolf2000, copicrazeunwoltxnaa, ConnieHai, ClaryJace4ever, But What If You Fly, addison foster, Addilyn Jackson for favouriting this poor smol story of mine,

and thank you to

Addilyn Jackson, But What If You Fly, ClaryJace4ever, ForeverFreeFall, IAmJustAFangirl172, JoySeph13, KittyJReilin, Purplicouspolkadot, Reyna Kane, TeamFitz Too Many Booty Calls To Count, Zda92601, addison foster, copicrazeunwoltxnaa, keeperofthelostwhovian, mayazdeb, messisoccer10, twinkletoestbh, and waterfallphoenix for following my pathetic fanfiction.

And lastly, thank you to Shannon Messenger for creating such an amazing and wonderful series for me to fangirl over.

Thank you thank you everyone who has ever supported this fanfiction! ! !

Yours sincerely,

Xylia Neo


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